Rise of the Dead
by Nytewalker
Summary: A group of people trying to survive in a world where the dead have risen.
1. Beginnings

Aaron Masters pulled his Mustang into the parking place and killed the engine. The Mustang's engine chugged hard a few times before it finally died. Aaron knew he needed to take the car in and get it looked at, but between the joke that was his salary and his child support payments, there wasn't much money left over for things like fixing the car. Some months there wasn't much money left over for eating or paying the rent.

Aaron looked down at his watch. He still had twenty minutes before he had to open the store so he lit a cigarette, leaned his seat back and tried to get comfortable for a few more minutes.

A few more minutes before he, Aaron Masters, eight year Marine veteran, Bachelor of Science graduate, had the pleasure of being Aaron Masters, Assistant Manager of Big 5 Sporting Goods. Yippee, he thought.

He shook his head and took another drag on his cigarette. How had things gone so far down the toilet? Oh yeah, he thought, Cecelia. If there was an evil in the universe, he'd managed to marry it, have a kid with it and finally divorce it.

He was saved from another trip down the depressing road of thinking about Cecelia by a car pulling into the Big 5 parking lot. He watched the passenger lean across and kiss the driver on the cheek before getting out. When Aaron saw who it was, he groaned. He'd forgotten Jimmy Martinez was opening with him this morning.

"This day just keeps getting better and better", he thought.

Giving up on any more peace and quiet, Aaron got out of his car and headed towards the store. Jimmy's mom waved at him as she turned her car around to leave. Aaron gave her a plastic smile and a little wave.

"Morning, Aaron. How's it going?" Jimmy asked as Aaron approached.

"Just peachy," Aaron mumbled, taking one last drag on his cigarette before flicking it into the parking lot.

"Hey, Aaron," Jimmy started. Aaron knew what was coming. Some damn speech about how we shouldn't be littering in the parking lot. It was a bad example to set for the customers and ourselves. The kid was way too damn gung-ho for the company, Aaron thought. I don't remember being that gung-ho about McDonald's when I was 16. Of course, that was half my damn lifetime ago.

Aaron was saved from Jimmy's speech by a pair of police cars, lights and sirens screaming, speeding past the store.

"That's like the fifth cop I've seen this morning," Jimmy commented.

Aaron grunted in reply before unlocking the doors to the store. He unlocked the security gate and shoved it up before heading back to deactivate the alarm. He had just started making coffee when he heard someone yell, "Sup, bitches!"

Great, he thought, I have to deal with Jimmy and Eddie; the geeky company kid and the rebel without a clue. Maybe I should have called off.

Aaron walked out of the break room and watched the last of the morning crew walk in. Thank God, he thought. Johanna Alvarez was a quiet, little Mexican girl who did her job and wasn't a pain in Aaron's ass. She was also the only person that could make Eddie shut up and act like a human being. Eddie had a massive crush on her but didn't have he guts to ask her out.

"Alright, people, let's get this place opened," Aaron said. "Jo, you're on register. Eddie, tuck your damn shirt in and pretend to sweep. Jimmy, clean up shoes. It looks like whoever closed last night decided to leave that mess for us."

A half hour later, Eddie was standing up front, not even pretending to sweep any more. "That's the second fire truck and like the fifth cop since we opened. There must be some serious shit going on," he said.

"Eddie, you shouldn't cuss on the floor," Jimmy said.

"Oh shut the fuck up, nerd," Eddie snapped. "There ain't any customers in here and I'll say whatever the fuck I want. Fuck, fuck, fuckity, fuck, fuckaroo, fuck you."

Jimmy looked towards the manager's office to see if Aaron would say anything. Aaron had heard the entire exchange and nearly choked on his coffee when Eddie started his little chant. Gonna have to remember _that_ one, he thought.

Eddie was still standing at the front doors a few minutes later when a pickup sped into the parking lot and skidded to a stop in front of the store.

"Holy shit, this old dude nearly hit the fucking store!" Eddie yelled.

An older man got out of the pickup and ran towards the doors. He yanked the door open and grabbed Eddie's arm. "I need a gun," he said.

"Uhh… Aaron!" Eddie yelled.

Aaron had heard Eddie yell and was already out of the manager's office and heading for the old man.

"Excuse me, sir; is there something I can help you with?" Aaron asked.

The old man let go of Eddie and turned to Aaron. "I need a gun, goddammit!" He yelled.

"Sir, the first thing you need to do is calm down," Aaron said, putting himself between the old guy and the gun section. "Let's just go over here and sit down, shall we?"

Aaron reached out to take the man's arm, but the old man yanked his arm back. He tried to push past Aaron towards the gun section, but Aaron gave the old man a hard shove, knocking him to the floor.

"Buddy, you need to calm…"

A loud crash from the front of the store cut Aaron off. A woman had run headlong into the front doors. She was clawing at the door, trying desperately to get in.

"Look at her neck," Jo whispered.

Everyone's eyes were drawn to her neck and shoulder. Her shirt had been torn and a ragged wound extended from her shoulder to the top of her neck. Her blouse was completely soaked in her blood.

"Oh fuck, they're here!" The old man yelled, sliding himself back away from the door.

Aaron watched the old man for a second before turning his eyes back to the woman. There's no way she should still be standing, he thought. That much blood loss should have her dead by now.

"Jo, call 911," Aaron said. "Eddie, get away from the door."

"Aaron, she's hurt!" Jo said. "We need to help her."

"Yeah, man. It's like out civic duty or something," Eddie said, nodding to Jo. When she nodded back to him, he felt his heart hammering in his chest. Maybe if he played this right she might look to finally hook up with him.

"Eddie, get away from the door. Now," Aaron said.

Rolling his eyes, Eddie walked over and pushed the door open. The woman leapt through the opening and on top of Eddie.

"Jesus, lady, you're…" Eddie started to say before the woman bit into his hand. He screamed and yanked his hand back, tearing a chunk of his hand off in her mouth. He tried to push the woman off but she grabbed his arm and bit into it.

Aaron sprang forward and grabbed the woman by her hair. He managed to drag her off of Eddie, but could he could barely hold onto her as she fought to get free from him.

Swinging her by her hair, Aaron slammed the woman's head into the glass by the front door. The woman slid to the floor, leaving a smear of blood down the glass. She didn't stay there long though. She shook her head and rose to her feet.

"No fucking way," Aaron whispered.

"Fucking bitch!" Eddie yelled, shoving Aaron out of the way. He kicked the woman in the stomach, screaming, "You fucking bit me!"

The woman was barely fazed by Eddie's kick. She launched herself back at him, sending them both to the floor. She managed to pin Eddie's shoulders down as she lunged forward to take a bite out of his neck.

While Eddie fought against the woman, Aaron grabbed a golf club from a display at the front of the store. He turned back to the two and smashed it against the woman's head. She rolled off of Eddie, but Aaron followed her and hit her again. He kept hitting her until she finally stopped moving.

Aaron stood over the woman, his heart racing. Had he just done that? Had he just beat a woman to death? Oh God, what the hell have I done? He thought.

"Eddie!" Jo yelled, snapping Aaron back to reality.

Aaron turned to Eddie. Blood was already pooling under him as he lay on the floor trying to hold the remains of his neck together. Aaron dropped the golf club and yanked off his shirt. He balled it up and pressed it tight against Eddie's throat.

"Jo, call 911, right now," Aaron said, surprised at how calm he sounded.

Jo picked up the phone and dialed, but all she got was a message saying all circuits were busy. She tried again and got the same message.

"It's not working. I keep getting all circuits busy," she said.

"Keep trying," Aaron said. Meeting Eddie's eyes, he said, "Eddie, I just need you to hold on for a few more minutes. Help's going to be here soon."

Jo kept trying. She must of tried a dozen times before she slammed the phone down and yelled, "It's not fucking working!"

"Don't worry about it," Aaron said, standing up from Eddie's body. His shirt, soaked through with blood, fell away from Eddie's neck, exposing the ragged wound.

"It's too late," Aaron said, staring down at Eddie, unable to pull his eyes away from Eddie's. If only the kid had listened.

Jo began to sob. Aaron turned to say something to her when Eddie's eyes blinked. Aaron thought it was just an involuntary spasm, until Eddie turned his head to face Aaron.

For a moment nothing in the store moved or made a sound. Until Eddie launched himself at Aaron.

Aaron managed to side step Eddie's rush and trip him. Eddie slammed to the floor, but was quickly back on his feet. Aaron grabbed Jo and yanked her away from the register.

"Store room! Now!" He yelled.

The two took off towards the back of the store with Eddie hot on their heels. As they passed the baseball section of the store, the old man sprung from where he had been hiding and nailed Eddie in the chest with a baseball bat.

Aaron clearly heard bones breaking as Eddie crashed to the ground. The old man was on him before he could get up. He swung the bat down onto Eddie's back driving him to the ground. Still Eddie tried to get up. The old man brought the bat down again and again, shattering Eddie's shoulder, crushing his pelvis and, through it all, Eddie still kept trying to get up.

Aaron ran back to the old man. When he brought the bat up again, Aaron stopped him. He pulled the bat out of the man's hands and brought it down on Eddie's skull. With a sickening crunch, Eddie fell to floor and did not try to rise again.

Seeing the remains of Eddie's head, Jo fell to the floor and vomited. She kept heaving, long after she'd emptied her stomach. Finally, the dry heaves stopped. She crawled away from the mess and, curling into a ball on the floor, she began to cry uncontrollably.

Aaron and the old man stood over Eddie's body. Aaron dropped the bat next to Eddie and met the old man's eyes.

"You were saying something about needing a gun?"


	2. Preparations

The old man gave Aaron a small smile and extended his hand. "Larry Murchison," he said.

"Aaron Masters," Aaron said, shaking Larry's hand. "So how did you know that chick that attacked Eddie was… whatever the hell she was?"

Larry sighed and said, "My grandson went to a party last night. When he got home, too damn late for his own good, he told me someone went crazy at the party and started biting people. Chris, my grandson, got bit on the arm holding the nut down until the police got there."

Larry looked down at the floor and whispered, "When I got up this morning, Chris had Mary Anne, my wife, on the floor in the kitchen. He… He was eating her… I... I ran out of the house and came here. I didn't know what to do."

Quiet sobs shook Larry's body. Aaron couldn't begin to imagine the pain he must be feeling, but there were other things they needed to concentrate on right now. Aaron put his hand on Larry's shoulder and said, "Larry, I'm sorry for your loss, but right now I need you."

Aaron pulled his key ring out of his pocket and slid two keys off the ring. He took Larry's wrist and put the keys in his hand.

"The little silver key opens all the locks on the gun rack. Grab some shotguns and get them locked and loaded," he said. "The bigger gold one opens the cabinet with the pistols. Get a couple out and loaded. Can you do that?"

Larry gulped, wiped his eyes on his sleeve and nodded to Aaron. With Larry off to get weapons, Aaron headed over to Jo. He knelt down on the floor next to her and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Jo, sweetie, I need you to get up," he said quietly to her.

"Aaron what happened to Eddie?" She asked. "I thought you said he was dead."

"Jo, I don't know what the hell is going on, that's why I need you. We need to get the store locked up so no more freaks like that lady get in, okay?" He asked.

She nodded to him and let him help her to her feet. She swayed for a moment, but Aaron caught her before she could fall.

"Jo, honey, why don't you go in the bathroom and rinse off?" He asked.

"Okay," she said, wandering off towards the bathroom.

Two down, one to go, Aaron thought.

He looked around the store and spotted Jimmy standing in the camping section. Jimmy just stood staring at the front of the store as Aaron walked over to him. As Aaron approached, he saw the front of Jimmy's pants were soaked. He could sympathize with the boy, when Eddie had gotten up; Aaron had nearly pissed his own pants.

"Hey, Jimmy," he said. "Jimmy, are you okay?"

Jimmy turned his tear streaked face to Aaron and asked, "What's going on, Aaron?"

"I don't know, Jimmy. All I know is we need to get this place locked down and make sure no more people like that get in here," he answered.

"You think there are more bad people out there?" Jimmy asked.

"From what the old guy, Larry, told me, there are, yes," Aaron answered.

Suddenly, Jimmy grabbed Aaron's arm and asked, "What about my mom? Oh my God, she's out there with them."

"Jimmy, calm down. We'll call your mom and get her to come here. Then we'll lock this place up and wait for this thing to blow over," he said.

"Yeah," Jimmy mumbled. "Call my mom. Yeah, I'm gonna do that."

"I think the first thing you need to go is change your pants," Aaron said.

Jimmy looked down and, for the first time, saw what he had done. Looking back up at Aaron his face flushed a deep red and tears welled up in his eyes.

"Jimmy, don't think about it. Stuff like that happened to a lot of guys when I was in the Marines. And if it can happen to a big, bad Marine, it can happen to anyone. Now go get cleaned up."

"I don't have any changes of pants though," Jimmy said.

Aaron chuckled and said, "Grab some workout pants or something. I don't think anyone in management will say anything."

Jimmy gave Aaron a ghost of a smile and headed off to get changed. Aaron took a deep breath and let it out. Next, he thought.

He wandered over and ripped open a pack of t-shirts. Sliding one on, he headed back to the manager's office. He closed the door and dialed Cecelia's number. He kept getting the all circuits are busy message until the seventh try. Finally, the phone started to ring.

"We're sorry the number you have dialed is no longer in service," the voice from the other end said.

"Goddammit!" He yelled, slamming the phone down. She'd changed the fucking number again. She thought it was funny to change her phone number on Aaron every six months or so. Making him wait until Katie begged to call daddy and he got her number from his caller id again.

Wait, he thought. Katie called last week. Maybe the new number was still on his caller id. He hadn't checked it this last call and it could have been the new number. But that would mean going out with whatever the hell was going on outside. It didn't matter though. He needed to make sure his daughter was safe.

He stormed out of the manager's office and walked over to the registers. Both Jo and Jimmy were on the phones at the registers when he walked up. Jimmy hung up and the phone and ginned at him.

"Mom's okay. I got her on her cell and she's on her way here," he said.

"Good. When she gets here wave her over to the store room door. We're going to lock the front doors and pull down the security gate," Aaron said.

"Why?" Jimmy asked.

Aaron frowned at the boy. "Because the store room door doesn't have an outside handle. And I want the gate down just in case someone manages to break the glass, they'd still have to find a way through the gate."

"Oh. Yeah. Sorry, Aaron."

Aaron ignored him as he locked the front doors and brought the security gate down. Once the front was sealed he headed over to camping and grabbed one of the backpacks he'd had his eyes on. It was meant for longer hikes and had the waist belt to help distribute the weight of the pack better.

Pack in hand; he walked around the store grabbing any necessities like extra pairs of socks, several of the less disgusting Power Bars and a couple of bottles of water. He zipped those into the main part of the pack.

"Aaron, what are you doing? Jimmy asked.

Ignoring the question, he walked over to the gun section and put a couple of boxes of shotgun shells into a side pocket of his pack.

"What pistols do you have ready?" He asked Larry.

"A couple of the Glock 9mm's, two of the Glock .45's and a .357," Larry answered. "I was kinda hoping I could use the .357."

"Fine by me," Aaron said.

He walked behind the counter and pulled a holster off of the shelf. Cinching it tight around his waist, he picked up one of the 9mm's and slid it into the holster. Getting under the pistol case he pulled out a box of extra clips for the Glock.

While he was loading the extra clips, Larry asked him, "Are you sure you want the 9? .45 has a lot more stopping power."

"It does," Aaron agreed, "but I spent eight years qualifying with a 9mm. I figure I'll stay with what I know."

"Smart," Larry said. "Mind if I ask you what you're doing?"

"I need to know if my daughter's safe. My bitch ex changed her number, but I think I have her new number on my caller id at home. Get the picture?" Aaron asked.

"You sure it's a good idea going out there?"

Aaron snorted a laugh. "No, it's stupid, but I have to know."

Finishing loading the four extra clips, he slid two into each of his front pockets. He grabbed a couple of boxes of shells for the pistol and slid them into the remaining side pockets of the backpack.

He surveyed the store one last time. He knew he didn't have everything he should be taking in the pack, but he wanted to travel as light as possible. He hoped he really didn't need any of what he had, but better safe than sorry.

"Jo, Jimmy, come here," he said.

The two joined him and Larry at the gun display.

"Alright, have either of you shot a gun before?" He asked.

Jimmy shook his head and Jo said, "My brother took me shooting a couple of times. I'm pretty good with his shotgun."

"Good, keep one with you at all times," Aaron said. "Jimmy, I want you to get a holster and carry one of the 9mm's. And, all three of you, I want you to keep the safeties on at all times _do not_ chamber a round until you intend on firing. I _do not_ want accidents. Understood?"

"Umm, Aaron, what does all of that mean?" Jimmy asked quietly.

"Larry will explain," Aaron said. "I have some stuff to do and I'll try and get back as quick as possible. If any more crazies show up, don't let them in. Any people come along, get them in through the store room."

Turning to Jo, he asked, "Did you get a hold of your folks?"

He knew the answer from the look on her face. "No. I kept trying but nobody's picking up."

Jo lived in the same direction as Aaron. Hell, he was going that direction anyway. "I'll see if they're there on my way back, okay?"

Jo threw he arms around him and sobbed a thank you into his shoulder. Pulling out of her arms, he pulled his store keys out of his pocket and handed them to her.

"I guess you're a manager now. Congratulations on the promotion. The hours and pay still suck though," he said.

She gave him a weak chuckle and he knew it was time to go. Shouldering his pack, he picked up one of the shotguns and headed for the store room. Once he was at the store room door, he took a deep breath. The first step is always the worst, he thought. He chambered a round into the shotgun and flicked off the safety.

Looking behind him he saw Jo had followed him.

"Make sure the door is closed tight when I go and if you let anyone in," he said.

She nodded and said, "Be careful."

"Me?" He asked with a grin.

He shoved the door open, brought up the shotgun and stepped outside. A quick check of his surroundings didn't show any crazies so he ran over to his car. Kneeling down buy his car, he slid his hand into his pocket and pulled out his keys. He unlocked the driver's door and opened it. He slid off the pack and tossed it over into the passenger seat.

A string of gunshots nearby made him jump and almost fire off a round from the shotgun. Cursing his jumpiness, he flicked the safety on on the shotgun and got in the car. Locking his door, he started the car and headed out of the parking lot.


	3. Glimpse of Hell

Pulling out of the parking lot, Aaron turned left and started home. Looking to his left, he saw a bunch of people rushing into Safeway. He couldn't tell if they were crazies or just people.

A couple of cars sped past him, heading the opposite way. He figured they had to be going at least seventy if not faster.

He was less than a mile from Big 5 when he spotted an accident at the intersection ahead of him. Some people were standing around one of the cars. It looked like they were trying to pull someone out of the car through the passenger window.

Aaron slowed as he approached and was going to stop when one of the people turned to see him. Blood covered her shirt and face and she was chewing on something. When she moved, Aaron saw she wasn't trying to help someone out of the car. She was eating him alive.

The man in the car waved at Aaron and screamed for help. The woman turned back, and shoved herself back into the window while two of the crazies with her rushed Aaron.

Stomping on the gas, Aaron veered around the accident and just missed another crazy that grabbed for his car.

Heart racing, Aaron sped away from the monsters. "Okay, maybe going 70 through town isn't such a bad idea," he said to himself.

Speeding towards home, he saw more of the crazies running the streets. He saw several chasing people but he didn't stop. He wanted to badly, but Katie came first. He kept telling himself that every time he saw someone being chased down.

He sped past several buildings burning out of control. Not once did he see any firefighters or cops. Being first responders, he knew most of them were either dead or worse.

A truck cut onto the road right in front of Aaron. He managed to slam on the brakes and swerve, barely avoiding the back of the truck.

"Fucking idiot!" He yelled.

Then he saw three of the crazies were in the bed of the truck, trying to break through the glass and get into the cab. Aaron slowed down and let the truck get ahead of him. He didn't want one those nuts seeing him and trying to jump onto his car.

He had to avoid another accident in the middle of the road and saw another accident up ahead of him. An accident the truck was speeding right at. The driver must have been paying attention to his passengers and not the road.

The truck slammed into the two wrecked cars and plowed right through them. The truck slewed to the side and then came off its wheels and began rolling across the road. Aaron watched it roll seven times before it came to a stop.

He slowed as he approached the remains of the truck. One of the crazies that had been in the bed was crawling towards the wreck. All that was left of him was from his stomach up. Aaron couldn't see where the rest of him was. He stared at the thing crawling towards the truck.

It wasn't possible. That much trauma should have him dead. And where was all the blood? Aaron slowed to a crawl, looking behind the crawling thing. He should be pouring blood, but there was only a little trail of blood behind him.

"That's not possible," Aaron whispered.

A fist smashed into the windshield in front of him, cracking the glass. Aaron stomped on the gas and caught only a glimpse of the woman that hit his car. She might have been from the truck wreck or the wreck the truck hit. Her entire right arm was missing along with most of the right side of her face.

Narrowing his focus to what was in front of him, Aaron sped the rest of the way home. He wasn't stopping again. No fucking way.

He pulled into his apartment complex and pulled his car into his normal spot. How many times had he done this? It seemed so funny, how much stupid things had meant to him. Stuff as stupid as getting a good parking place. Those things lost a lot of their meaning when people were running around trying to eat you.

Turning off the car, he threw open the door and pulled the 9mm. Flicking off the safety, he chambered a round and did a quick sweep of the area. Not seeing any movement, he closed his door and went around to the other side of the car. He was reaching for the door handle when he heard a growl from behind him.

He spun around to face a man charging him. The man looked like someone had chewed most of the side of his face off. Aaron fired two shots into the man's chest. They staggered him, but he didn't drop. Lifting his aim, he put two shots through the man's head. The man fell to the ground and did not move again.

Opening the car door, Aaron pulled out his pack and the shotgun. He hit the safety on the pistol and slid it into his holder. Keys and shotgun in hand, he closed his door and ran for his apartment.

Halfway there two more monsters came around the building behind him and gave chase. Aaron put on a burst of speed and tore up the stairs to his apartment. He unlocked the deadbolt and threw open the door. Once inside, he slammed the door and turned the deadbolt. From the other side something started banging on his door, rattling it in the frame.

Dropping the shotgun and pack, he shoved his entertainment center over in front of the door.

He picked up his phone and dialed Big 5. It only took two tries to get through."Umm… Big 5 this is Jo."

"Jo, it's Aaron. Listen, the only thing that's stopping these things is a head wound. If any get in, aim for the head, got it?" He asked.

"Yeah, Aaron, we know," she said. "Jimmy got on the internet when you left and there are some people posting all kinds of shit. They're saying these things are dead. Like they're zombies or something."

"Has there been any news on St. Louis?" He asked.

"Not that I saw, why?"

"That's where my daughter is," he said. "Jo, I'll call you back. I have to try to get a hold of Katie. Bye."

He hung the phone up and started going through the calls on his caller id. The door was rattling worse and worse with each hit. Aaron knew he was running out of time.

Finally he found a number with a St. Louis area code. He dialed the number and waited. It took almost a dozen tries but the phone started to ring. One the fifth ring it went to the answering machine.

Aaron waited through the message and when the machine beeped, he said, "Cecelia, it's Aaron, pick up the phone if you're there. Katie, it's daddy, are you there? Dammit. If you get this message call me at Big 5. It's 928-555-1012. Please call me and let me know Katie's okay, Ce. Please"

Aaron hung up the phone and stood staring at it. Maybe they were there. Maybe they would call him back if he just waited. The door rattled and he heard the frame crack. Still he waited, staring down at the phone, willing it to ring. The door cracked again and he knew a couple more hits and it would give. What good was he going to be to Katie if he was dead?

Dropping the phone, he shouldered his pack, grabbed the shotgun and ran into his bedroom. He closed the door and shoved the dresser in front of it. Opening the sliding glass door, he slipped out on the balcony and took a look around. Not seeing any movement, he looked over the edge of the balcony. It wasn't much of a drop, but all he needed now was a sprained ankle.

He went back into the bedroom and pulled the sheets off his bed. Tying them together, he went back out onto the balcony and tied one end of the sheets to the rail. He tossed the sheets over the side and took another look around. Still seeing no movement, he climbed over the edge of the balcony and slid down to the ground.

Unslinging his shotgun, he made his way through he courtyard. At the corner of the building, he peeked around and saw a couple of the monsters banging on another door. Funny how they went from crazies to monsters, he thought.

The pair banging on the door had their backs to him letting Aaron slip quickly past. He made it to the car, got in and started it up. The noise from his engine got him all the attention he didn't need.

A group of four came rushing from one apartment building, while another three came from another. Aaron backed out of the space and sped away. He had to swerve to avoid the threesome. He missed two but clipped the third. The woman cracked her head on his hood and slipped off the car.

Past them, he was out on the street again and headed back to Big 5. He was most of the way down his road when he remembered he'd told Jo he would check on her parents.

The trip to Jo's house was surprisingly easy and monster free. Pulling up in front of her house, he left the car running and jumped out. Pulling the Glock from the holster, he ran to her door and rang the bell.

Nobody answered. He rang the bell again and said, "Mr. or Mrs. Alvarez, are you here? It's Aaron; I work with Jo at Big 5."

Aaron heard something behind the door and Mr. Alvarez opened it.

"Is Jo, alright?" He asked.

"Yeah, she's at Big 5. We're locking it down and she wanted me to bring you in," Aaron said.

"Come in," Mr. Alvarez said.

Slipping the Glock into his holster, Aaron went into the house. Mr. Alvarez locked the door behind him. In the living room his wife was sitting, holding their baby.

"Is your son here?" Aaron asked.

Mrs. Alvarez bent her head and started to sob. Mr. Alvarez said, "We don't know where he is. He stayed at a friend's last night and we've been trying to get a hold of him and Jo but we keep getting a busy signal. Then the damn battery on the phone died. I keep telling that boy he needs to put it back on the charger when he's done with it."

"Okay," Aaron said, trying to think. "Here's what we'll do. We'll leave a note on the door and one on the phone letting him know where we are. While I'm doing that, you two grab what you need. Do you have a car?"

"Yes, my truck's in the garage," Mr. Alvarez answered.

"Perfect. Get it packed," Aaron said. "Let's move."

While they got what they needed in the truck, Aaron left the notes for Luis.

Once the truck was packed, and the Alvarez's were all in and ready, Aaron said, "Here's the plan. My car is out front. Mr. Alvarez, you start the truck and then hit the garage door opener. Once I'm in my car, you follow me to Big 5. We don't stop. I want to make that clear. I don't care what you see, we _do not stop_."

Mr. Alvarez nodded and rolled up his window. Aaron went and knelt by the garage door. He pulled out the Glock and said, "Okay, open her up."

The garage door began to rattle and squeak its way up the track. Aaron's first sight was a dozen of the monsters in the road, all turning towards the sound of the garage door opening.

"Shit!" Aaron yelled, opening fire on the monsters. He took down a couple but there was no way he could take them all down and make it to his car. As the mob rushed towards him, Aaron stood up and jumped into the bed of the Alvarez truck.

"Go! Go! Go!" He yelled.

Mr. Alvarez hit the gas and sped down his driveway. He hit a couple of monsters before he got out into the road. He stopped, shifted into drive and took off. One of them managed to grab the back of the truck and started to pull itself into the bed. Aaron put a bullet in its head and it fell away from the truck.

The mob kept chasing the truck, but Mr. Alvarez lost them at the next intersection.

Sitting in the bed of the truck, Aaron slipped the clip out of the Glock and replaced it with a fresh one. He still had a few shots, but he'd rather have a full clip when they got to Big 5. Just in case.

Along the way to Big 5, Aaron listened to gun fire from all around them. They passed screaming mobs of the monsters and more wrecked cars. They passed the Safeway and this time Aaron didn't see anyone running in or out of the store.

He didn't know if that was a good thing or not.

Finally, Mr. Alvarez turned the truck and they were back at Big 5.


	4. More Preparations

Mr. Alvarez pulled his truck to stop in the Big 5 parking lot. Aaron took a look around and, other than a few more cars, the area was relatively quiet.

"Let's get inside," he said, jumping out of the truck. He led the Alvarez's over to the store room door. Jo burst out of the door and into her family's arms. While Aaron was glad that Jo had most of her family back, the reunion should really be taking place back in the store.

He ushered the Alvarez's in and made sure the door was secure behind them. Inside, he headed up front and got a bottle of water out of the fridge. He took a long drink and then looked around the store. Almost a dozen new people were wandering around the store.

Jo came over while he was watching the new people. She held out his key ring and said, "Since you're back, I guess you're back in charge."

He reached out to take the keys and she grabbed his hand in both of hers.

"Thank you for getting them, Aaron. I can never thank you enough," she said.

Aaron shrugged and said, "No problem. When did all of these people get here?"

"About five minutes after you left. It was like one car turned in and then the rest saw that one turn so they followed. We've checked them all for bites and everyone looks okay so far," she answered.

"Bites?" He asked.

"Yeah. Jimmy found a website that has a lot of good info on what's going on. You should go see it," she said.

Pocketing his keys, Aaron made his way into the manager's office where Jimmy was browsing the internet. Seeing Aaron, Jimmy looked up sheepishly and said, "I know we're not supposed to use the computer for personal reasons, but…"

Aaron shrugged it off. "Don't worry about it. I think we've pretty much tossed company policy out the window. What have you found?"

"Well, it looks like since dawn the bodies of the recently deceased just decided to get up and eat the living," he said.

Even seeing everything he had seen so far, Aaron was hard pressed to digest that bit of information.

"From what I've found people on the internet saying," Jimmy continued, "if you get bit by a zombie, the bite will kill you and when you die you come back. It's pretty crazy stuff but it explains stuff like… well, like Eddie."

"People have figured this all out since dawn?" Aaron asked.

"Well, remember, dawn on the east coast was several hours ago. These people have had time to see what's going on."

"Okay, I thought all the zombies in movies were slow and dumb," Aaron said.

Jimmy frowned at him. "Aaron this isn't the movies. This is real."

Aaron raised his hands and said, "Okay, whatever. So we're dealing with zombies. What else do you have for me?"

"The government is setting up evacuation sites and emergency shelters for the major cities but I don't know what they're doing here locally."

"Have you tried one of the radios we have out for sale?" Aaron asked.

Jimmy's face was blank for a minute and the he blushed. "Oh my God, I didn't even think about that."

"You kids and your damned computers," Aaron joked. "I'll get one and see what the local scene is like."

Aaron walked out of the office and went to the radio display. As he opened one of the boxes, Larry joined him.

"How bad is it out there?" Larry asked.

"It's a fucking mad house," Aaron answered. "Fires and wrecks all over and monsters or zombies or whatever they are running around all over the place."

"The correct term is 'zombies' according to that geeky kid on the computer," Larry said. "He made sure to correct me on that earlier. Goddamn world is ending and we still have to use our politically correct labels on everything."

"Nah, if we were going for PC crap, I think they'd have gone with something like 'living impaired but mobility enhanced persons,'" Aaron said.

The two shared a laugh as Aaron carried the radio over to the gun section. He plugged it in turned it on. He scanned through the stations and came across one that was broadcasting.

"… in your homes. Residents should not venture out during this crisis. You are advised to remain in your homes with all doors and windows locked. Do not allow persons exhibiting unusual behavior into your homes. If you see any individuals exhibiting irrational behavior please contact 911 immediately."

Aaron scanned to the next station but it was the same canned message. The next couple of stationd had the same message as well.

"Well, that's a lot of help," Larry grumbled. "Typical of the way this city is run. All hell breaks loose and the government is nowhere to be found."

Aaron ignored Larry and left the radio to keep playing the message. Maybe someone would come on with an update later. He pulled the nearly empty clip out of his pocket, reached over for the box of 9mm shells and began reloading the clip.

Finishing reloading the clip, Aaron asked, "How many people do we have in here?"

"I don't know. I wasn't really watching the people. I've been getting the guns all cleaned and loaded," Larry answered.

"There's sixteen total, counting yourself and the new arrivals," a man wearing a Safeway uniform said.

"Oh, I'm Tim Anderson, by the way," he said. "I was the manager over at Safeway."

"How did you wind up here?" Aaron asked.

"Well, all these people were coming in this morning and just dumping money on canned food and water. These people started fighting in the aisles over the water and then those… things came in. They started tearing people apart," he said, shaking his head, still not believing what he had seen.

"I grabbed two of the cashiers and we ran into the store room and then out the back through the loading dock. We all piled into my car and got out on the highway. When we turned we saw a couple of cars pull in here and thought this might be a good place to hold up."

"Plus we have lots of guns here," Aaron said.

Tim grinned and said, "Yeah, that was a big plus right there. Umm… I don't want to step on your toes or anything, but shouldn't we cover up the front windows? I know it's nice to see out, but those things can see in too."

Aaron nodded and said, "We're gonna take care of that and a couple of things right now."

Walking over to the registers, Aaron raised his voice and said, "Everybody, please come over here."

Once he had his group gathered, Aaron said, "My name is Aaron Masters and we need to get this little group organized because we might be here for a while."

"Hasn't anyone tried calling the cops? I've been watching you all walk around and play with the toys here, but isn't anyone trying to get a hold of someone in authority?" An older woman at the back of the group asked.

Jimmy raised his hand and said, "Ma'am, we've tried calling 911 and the police non-emergency line from the manager's office. Nobody's picking up."

"I just can't believe that, young man. Maybe I should try," she said.

"We have a couple of things that need to be done first though, so moving along," Aaron said, earning himself a glare from the woman. He could already tell she was going to be a pain in the ass.

"Do any of you have military experience?" He asked the group.

A man about his age raised his hand and said, "Yeah, umm... I'm Paul Tiebs and I did a tour in the Army. It's been about five years since I got out though.

"I said military. Army isn't really military," Aaron said with a grin.

The man chuckled and said, "You were a Marine, weren't you?"

Aaron nodded and asked, "Anyone else with military experience?"

Nobody said anything. "How about hunting? Or maybe being in a gang or getting shot at? Something that involves using a gun?"

A couple of men raised their hands and the older one said, "Umm... I'm Danny Haggerty and this is my brother Andy. We do a lot of hunting, if that helps."

"It does. Alright, here's the plan, the Haggerty boys, Army guy, Tim from Safeway and myself are going to make a trip to Safeway. We're going to secure food supplies and bring them back. Mr. Alvarez, Larry, we'll need your trucks. I saw one more truck out there, whose is it?" Aaron asked.

Danny Haggerty raised his hand and said, "It's ours."

"Perfect. While we're out getting food, Jo organize the rest of these folks into work details. I want some tarps put up over the front so nobody can see in here. I want a group emptying and cleaning out the soda bottles from the display fridge and in back. Get some of those camp stoves and start boiling water. I want as much boiled water as you can get."

"What about the water purifier tablets? Why not use those?" She asked.

"I want to keep those in case we have to evac out of here. We may be drinking river water and those things will come in handy then," Aaron said, pulling out his keys and tossing them to Jo. "You're in charge again."

"Let's get to it, people. Safeway group, come on over to guns."

Aaron and the group he had picked for the Safeway trip went over to the gun section. Larry joined them and said, "I have a bunch of shotguns and pistols all ready for you."

"Good. Everyone load up with a shotgun, a pistol and extra ammo," Aaron said.

"Why shotguns and not a couple of 30.06s?" Paul asked.

"We're not going for range. We're going for distribution of destruction and a couple of shotguns firing at head height does a better job of that," Aaron answered.

"Good point," Paul said.

"I'm not trying to sound like a chickenshit or anything, but why do I have to go?" Tim asked.

"Because we're going in through the loading dock where you said you came out and, if your back doors are like our store room door, we're going to need your keys. Plus you know the layout in your store room and I don't want to be over there all day," Aaron answered.

"Here's how this is going to work. We get the three trucks and go to the loading dock. Haggerty boys, you're guarding the trucks while Tim, Paul and I head in and get as much canned food as we can."

"We just received a shipment yesterday and there are a couple of pallets of canned foods stored near the dock," Tim said.

"Good. The quicker, we're in and out, the better," Aaron said.

"Don't you think we're kind of rushing things here. Maybe we should secure ourselves here and then go get food," Paul said.

"Have you seen what it's like out there?" Aaron asked. Before Paul could answer he continued, "It's a fucking madhouse and I've got a feeling it's just going to get worse. We need to make sure we have essentials and we need to do it _now_."

Grabbing some extra shells for the shotgun, Aaron stuffed them in his pocket, grabbed his shotgun and stormed off to find Jo.

"Moody, isn't he?" Andy Haggerty asked.

"Have you seen those things?" Larry snapped.

"Yeah, we saw some on our way here," Danny said.

Larry took a step closer to the brothers and said, "Well, I watched my grandson eating my wife this morning. Then I saw a woman tear the throat out of one of the kids that works here. _Then_ that kid got up and I watched Aaron crush his skull with a baseball bat. Moody? He has a damn right to be moody."

Aaron caught up with Jo as she was getting a couple of people to pull out some of the camping tarps and duct tape them together for the front.

"When that's up, get a list of everyone's name and what they know how to do," he said. "We need to know where our strengths and weaknesses are."

"You got it," she said.

"Safeway group, let's go!" He said, heading towards the store room.

A wave of dread washed over him. Paul was right, he was rushing everything, but what choice did he have? If they didn't act now they might never get the chance to act.


	5. Safeway

"Aaron, wait!" Larry yelled, running over to join Aaron. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his keys.

"You might need these," he said.

Aaron stared down at the keys, not believing he'd forgotten to ask for them.

"Jo, can you go ask your dad for his keys too, please?" He asked quietly, mentally kicking himself.

Once they had the keys to the trucks, the Safeway group went into the store room. At the door Aaron stopped them and said, "Here's how I want to do this. Paul, you and Tim take point in the Alvarez truck. Haggertys, you take your truck and I'll follow in Larry's. Once we get over there, turn your trucks so the beds are up against the back dock and we'll see how things look from there. If it's too hairy, get back here, got it?"

With that, he handed Paul the keys to the Alvarez truck. He chambered a round into his shotgun and put his hand on the door. "Here we go."

He pushed the door open and stepped outside, keeping the shotgun up. Everything was still and calm, he could almost fool himself into believing that the world wasn't ending around him.

Paul and Tim got in their truck and headed out of the parking lot.

"I'm not too sure about this Aaron guy," Tim said. "He seems to be kinda schizo, doesn't he? All smiles one minute when he was talking to you and then snappy the next."

"He's trying to make sure we all survive this. Plus, like Larry said, he killed someone he knew this morning. That's gotta be stressful enough. Besides, he's the only person I see being proactive around here. And I don't know about you, but I would rather be doing something useful than sitting on my ass," Paul said.

He knew he was being a little short with Tim but what he had said was true. He'd seen too many people get screwed over because nobody would step up and take charge. Aaron was doing his best in a shitty situation. Paul just hoped he could keep a level head. Nearly forgetting to get the keys before they left had been a pretty bad detail to miss.

They made the rest of the short trip in silence. Once they arrived and all three trucks were pulled up to the dock, Aaron got out and waved them over.

"Haggertys, stay out here and watch for zombies. Tim, you're going to unlock and pull the door open while Paul and I check things out. Paul, you go high; I go low, got it?"

They nodded and Tim, Paul and Aaron made their way to the door. Tim pulled his keys out and dropped them his hands were shaking so badly. He picked them up and found the key he was looking for. With Aaron crouching and Paul standing over him, Tim slid the key in the lock and opened the door

Aaron's heart hammered in his chest as the door swung open. He just knew one of those things was right behind it waiting for him. To his relief, all that was waiting for him were pallets of supplies.

Paul stepped past Aaron and into the store room. He scanned right while Aaron checked left. Paul felt his pulse jump every time he passed a pallet. But, each time, nothing was waiting for him

Once the store room was secure, Aaron and Paul went back to the door. Aaron waved the Haggertys over and said, "Alright, Paul, you go outside and keep watch. Tim, Haggertys, you start loading canned food into the trucks. I'll keep watch in here. Keep it quiet but work fast. Tim, where's the food?"

Tim led the Haggertys over to a pallet stacked six feet high and wrapped in cellophane. Andy tried to pull the cellophane off but it wouldn't rip.

"Anyone got a knife?" He asked.

Everyone inside shook their head but then Tim said, "Wait! We have a box cutter over on the receiver's desk."

While he got the box cutter, Aaron kept watch towards the front of the store room. On the outside he looked composed but inside he was pissed. Knives. How the hell had he missed knives? Such a basic thing and he'd missed that too. Maybe he should just stop playing at leader guy. Between his car, the keys and now knives, who knew what he would screw up next?

Over the next several minutes, Tim and the Haggertys filled the truck beds. Once they were full, everyone headed out of the store room. Aaron had Tim lock the back door. He gathered the group and said, "Good work, everyone. Now, we get back over to Big 5 and unload this crap. If everything stays quiet, I want to grab a couple more people and do this again. I know it's a bitch but the more we have now, the better we'll be later. Now, let's go."

Paul grabbed his arm before he could go to his truck and whispered, "When we come back, we need some radios too. If some of those things had come by, I would have been able to warn you and we could have stopped and kept quiet until they were past."

Dammit. Communications too. What the hell good am I doing these people? Aaron asked himself. Sighing, he shook his head and said, "Good idea. We'll do that."

"Hey," Paul whispered. "You're doing fine, don't start doubting yourself. It's not every day the damn world ends. You're not expected to know everything. Just stay cool."

Aaron nodded and headed back over to his truck, still plagued by doubt.

The three trucks made it back over to Big 5 unnoticed. Once there, Aaron got the remainder of the people inside to help unload the trucks. After they had the trucks unloaded, Aaron gathered the group.

"We're going to take some more people over this time so we can make this run a little faster. Jimmy, Larry, Mr. Alvarez and…"

"Me," Jo said, stepping forward.

"No," Aaron and Mrs. Alvarez said at the same time.

"Mom, stop. Aaron, don't be a dork. You know I can carry more than Jimmy. Let me help. Please?"

Sighing, Aaron said, "Fine. You four get guns and everyone make sure you have a knife with you. We're going to break out some of those hiking radios too. Jimmy, go grab the ones with the headsets and the hands-free mode. Make sure they have batteries and are ready. Then we're off again."

After the group had outfitted themselves and Aaron had given them their truck assignments they started towards the door.

"Wait!" Jimmy yelled.

"What is it?" Aaron asked.

"Umm... I gotta pee," he said, running back to the bathrooms.

This made the Haggertys roar with laughter. Aaron glared at them while the group waited on Jimmy. Once he was done, everyone made their way into the store room. Aaron hung back from the group and stopped Jimmy at the door. The boy faced Aaron, his face blushing a deep crimson.

"I just didn't want to have another accident," Jimmy whispered.

Aaron gave him a small smile and said, "I understand. Now let's get this done."

The second trip went as smoothly as the first. After the group had unloaded from the second trip, Danny said, "Hey, Aaron, let's make another trip. I need some cigarettes and we don't have any beer or chips."

Aaron shook his head. "I think we're pushing our luck as it is."

"Come on, man. Just one more trip," Andy said.

"Yeah, that was pretty easy, Aaron," Jimmy added.

Aaron knew it was a bad idea. They'd been lucky so far and the area hadn't been crawling with those things like the rest of the city. How much longer would their luck hold?

"Come on, man. Let' do it!" Danny said.

"Fine. One last trip and then we're done," Aaron said.

Andy and Danny whooped and high-fived as the group made their way back over to Safeway.

Andy and Danny had most of the group pissed before they were even halfway done loading the trucks. The two kept screwing around, punching each other in the arm and trying to trip each other.

Aaron told them to knock it off but the two ignored him. What was the problem anyway? They hadn't seen any of those crazy people around. Maybe things weren't as bad as they thought. Besides, when was the next chance they were going to get to loot a real store.

Andy was carrying a couple of boxes of stew when Danny finally got him good. He was walking past Andy, looking the other way when he kicked Andy's foot out from under him. Andy tried to catch his balance and in doing so, fell into a pallet of pickles. He managed to stay upright but the boxes of pickles didn't.

With a thundering crash, the boxes of pickles slammed into the ground. Dozens of pickles jars shattered on impact and the smell of pickle juice began to permeate the air.

Danny roared with laughter and his brother stood looking around sheepishly. A scream from within the store cut Danny's laughter off.

"Outside! Now!" Aaron said.

A pair of zombies burst through the doors to the store and looked around for prey. Jimmy froze at the sight of them. The man was missing most of the flesh on his arm but the woman with him looked almost intact. Both of their mouths were covered in blood. They spotted Jimmy and ran for him. Jimmy wanted to run but he couldn't move as the pair approached. Aaron stepped out between the zombies and Jimmy. He fired two shots, taking down both of the creatures.

He ran over to Jimmy and grabbed his arm. "We need to go. Now!"

The pair started towards the back doors when another, larger group of zombies came into the store room. Aaron heard a loud crash from the back of the store room. A crash that sounded like the door closing. The zombies heard it too and ran towards the back.

Aaron pulled Jimmy towards the other door out of the store room and into Safeway. Maybe if all the zombies were back here, they could make it out the front.

"Aaron, it's Paul," the radio said in his ear. "Tim just closed and locked the door. He and the Haggertys took off; you need to make your way up front. We'll be ready for you."

Dragging Jimmy, Aaron ran to the store room door. He peeked out the little window in the door and only saw two zombies. They were just standing in one of the aisles staring off into space.

"Jimmy," he whispered, "no looking around. You run for the door. Got it?"

Jimmy nodded, his face pale. He shouldn't have come. Oh God, why did he come and try to help?

Aaron shoved open the door and pushed Jimmy out. The boy balked for a second and then took off running. The pair of zombies, seeing movement, turned and ran up the aisle towards the pair. Jimmy ran down a different aisle, Aaron right on his heels. He heard the zombies round the corner behind him and continue the chase, but at least they had the lead for now.

Exiting the aisle, Aaron saw a zombie right by the exit. It turned at the sound of their approach and tried cut them off. Aaron fired a shot at it, hitting it in the chest. Blood sprayed from behind it as it was thrown backwards. The zombie slid down the wall, but managed to get back to its feet as Aaron and Jimmy made it out the door.

Running out the door, Aaron grabbed Jimmy and pulled him to the right. Waiting a dozen yards away was a truck with Paul standing on the piles of canned goods. Aaron and Jimmy ran up to the truck and Aaron boosted Jimmy into the bed.

The three zombies burst out of the store as Aaron pulled himself into the truck. This was Paul's really first good look at the creatures. For an instant, his finger froze on the trigger until one of the creatures snarled and launched itself for the back of the truck.

Paul fired, shredding the top of the zombie's head. It banged off of the back of the truck and fell to the ground. As Mr. Alvarez started driving out of the parking lot, Aaron pulled his shotgun up and he and Paul finished the remaining two.

Back at Big 5, Aaron didn't bother helping unload. He stormed into the store and went in search of Andy and Danny.

Jimmy ran into the store past Aaron and went looking for his mom. When he found her, he threw his arms around her as sobs wracked his body. His knees gave out and she had to lower him to the floor. She held her son as he cried against her. Jimmy just wanted to go home. He didn't want this to be happening anymore. Why him? Why did it have to happen to him?

Aaron scoured the store and found the Haggertys standing by the registers. Aaron walked up to them, slipped him Glock out the holster, flipped off the safety and pressed it to Danny's forehead.

"You're not laughing anymore, are you?" He asked.

Beads of sweat ran down Danny's face. The barrel of the Glock was ice cold against his forehead. He raised his hands and said, "Aaron, I'm sorry. I didn't think…"

"That's your problem, motherfucker. You don't fucking think. Your stupid ass nearly got that kid, and who knows how many others of us, killed. All because you had to act like a fucking ten year old."

Andy stood beside his brother, not daring to move or speak for fear of the gun being turned on him.

"Aaron, I'm really sorry…"

"Yeah, you are," Aaron snapped.

"Aaron, put the gun down," Paul said, walking up beside Aaron.

Aaron stared into Danny's eyes. Stupid fuck had nearly gotten a kid killed because he wanted to play. A little bit more pressure on the trigger would insure that Danny never made that mistake again.

Paul reached out slowly and put his hand on the Glock. "Aaron, stand down."

Aaron took another breath before he holstered his pistol and stomped off. He stormed into the manager's office and slammed the door behind him.

Danny let out a breath and grabbed Paul's hand. Pumping it enthusiastically, he said, "Man, thank you! I thought I was dead. Did you see the look on that nut's face? Holy shit!"

Paul squeezed Danny's hand hard. Danny let out a little gasp and said, "Hey, man, ease up."

"If you ever do anything that stupid again, I won't stop him next time, got it?" Paul asked through clenched teeth.

"Yeah, okay, man, I got ya."

Paul let go of his hand and stomped off to go help offload supplies.

Danny looked at his brother and said, "I was just trying to have a little fun."


	6. Shopping

Aaron sat in the manager's office and stared at the wall. He should have broken those two up when they started goofing off. He knew better but, he hadn't done anything more then say something to them. His inaction had nearly gotten Jimmy killed.

God only knew what that kid was going through right now. Every time he'd seen one of things he had frozen up. _That_ had to be tearing him up.

Someone knocked on the door but, Aaron ignored it. A moment later the knob jiggled and the door opened. Aaron was sure he had locked the door. Jo pushed the door open, pulling his keys out of the lock.

"You forgot to take these back," she said. She set the keys on the desk and went back out the door. She came back in with a bottle of water and one of the camping bowls full of stew.

"I thought you might be hungry," she said, setting the food in front of him.

"Jo, you didn't have to," he said.

"It's nothing compared to what you did for me," she said. "You brought my family here and I know how dangerous that must have been. Thank you, Aaron"

"Okay, enough, Jo," he said. "You don't have to thank me every five minutes."

"Yes, I do," she said solemnly. "And I will think you for the rest of my life."

She leaned over and kissed him lightly on the lips. Her cheeks turning a deep crimson, she rushed out of the office. She brushed past Paul on her way out of the office. Paul stood looking at Aaron, a smug look on his face.

"Okay, the pretty girl kissed you. Are you all better now?" He asked Aaron.

"I will be when we get this place set up how I want," Aaron answered.

Paul groaned. "Does that mean we have to work?"

"I will not use a gun, sir," Mrs. Gloria Redman huffed. "And I am still shocked at your robbery of Safeway."

"That didn't stop you from eating though, did it?" Aaron asked her.

She huffed and stormed away from Aaron.

"I don't think anyone likes her, if it makes you feel any better, son. I just wish I could help you more" Dave Peters, the other survivor who wouldn't be using a gun, said. He looked down and the gnarled remains of his hands. Over the last couple of years his arthritis had gotten to the point that using his hands was misery. It had been an act of God that he had managed to drive his old car and follow the Haggertys to Big 5.

"It's okay, Dave. You keep monitoring the radio and let me know if anything useful comes out of it," Aaron said.

Somehow the group of sixteen survivors had managed to make it through the first day. From the newsfeeds Jimmy was finding on the internet, they actually had it pretty good. They'd watched a camera crew in a helicopter land on a building in New York to rescue survivors. The helicopter was about to lift off when the door to the roof burst open and a mob of zombies charged the helicopter. The cameraman, for some reason, kept filming as the zombies piled into the helicopter. The last image the camera showed was a snarling zombie face.

Most of the videos they watched ended in similar tragedies. It seemed for every one or two rescues they watched, another ten ended in failure. The majority of the Big 5 survivors stopped watching every time Jimmy said he found something. It was just too depressing.

Jimmy also found several websites with people posting their locations, what their status was and what they had learned about the zombies. He had wanted to post Big 5's location and status but Aaron had forbade him.

"Why not?" Jimmy asked.

"Because people, as a rule, would rather take from you than pool resources," Aaron answered.

"Aaron, I don't think we're going to have to worry about robbers and bandits," Jimmy said, rolling his eyes.

"I don't care. I said don't post us and I mean it," Aaron said, his final word on the subject.

Dave Peters did keep monitoring the radio, but other than the one announcement to stay indoors that repeated every fifteen minutes, there was nothing.

Throughout the next two days, the survivors tried reaching loved ones, either through the internet or the phone without success. Katie was constantly on Aaron's mind. He hadn't had time to write down Cecelia's new number before the zombies got into his apartment and that one little thing haunted him throughout his day. If he could have just talked to her, made sure she was safe, it would have meant the world to him.

In the middle of their forth day, Jimmy ran out of the manager's office to find Aaron. Dragging him back to the office, Jimmy showed Aaron what he had found on the internet.

"Okay, it's a 'this page can not be displayed' page. What's the big deal?" Aaron asked.

"That's just it," Jimmy said. "A couple of hours ago this site was up and had some great stuff about what's going on in Phoenix. Now it's gone along with a bunch of other sites."

"So?" Aaron asked.

"So! So the internet might start going down," Jimmy said irritably. "What are we going to do if that happens?"

"Umm… I don't know, Jimmy. What will we do?"

He was saved from hearing Jimmy's answer by Jo.

"Aaron, I need to talk to you," she said.

"Okay," he said.

"Alone," she said, staring at Jimmy,

"But, Aaron, I need to make sure we don't lose any more websites," Jimmy protested.

"The internet will still be here when you get back, Jimmy," Aaron said, ushering him out of the office. Once he was out, Jo reached over and locked the door. She stood, looking down at the floor.

"You said you needed to talk, Jo," Aaron prompted.

She kept looking down at the floor. She fidgeted and started to say something but just couldn't seem to get it out.

"Jo…"

"I started my period," she said in a rush. She clapped her hands over her mouth, her eyes wide, staring at Aaron. She leaned against the wall and slowly slid to the floor where she began to cry.

Aaron tried to think of something to say but words failed him. He knelt by her and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Okay, you started your period. It's not the end of the world," he said.

"You don't understand," she said through the tears. "We don't have anything for it."

"For what?" He asked, making her cry even harder. Aaron had no idea why she was so freaked out so he did what he had done every time a woman had baffled him. He put his arms around her and said, "It's alright, Jo. Everything will be alright."

He had no idea _how_ everything would be alright, but that didn't matter.

After a few minutes, Jo leaned back and said, "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Aaron said. "So… what do I do now?"

"Well, I checked and none of the women have any… _female_ stuff for this," she said.

"Okay, so we have no female stuff," Aaron said. "How do we get some?"

"We have to go to a store and get some," she answered.

Aaron stared at her. They needed female stuff. What the hell was female stuff? Then it clicked.

"You need tampons," he said.

"Yes," Jo said, blushing and ducking her head to hide her face.

"Well, why didn't you just say so?" He asked.

"I did," she said.

Suddenly, she stood up and said, "I need to go. Please hurry, Aaron"

"Huh?" He asked her fleeing form.

Paul wandered over and joined him. "What was that all about?" He asked.

"I have no idea. I think we need to go get tampons though," Aaron said, making Paul choke.

"What!" He asked.

"Yeah, that's how I feel," Aaron said. "Jo just told me she started her period and we don't have any _female_ things. So, now we have to go shopping. Again."

"And for tampons. Not something I thought I'd ever have to go shopping for," Paul said.

"Hey, I was married for seven years and I never had to buy them," Aaron added.

Jennie Tibbs, one of the cashiers Tim had escaped from Safeway with, was wandering by when she heard the two talking. She couldn't help but laugh at them

"What?" Paul asked.

"You two are typical males, you know that?" She asked.

The both stared at her with blank looks on their faces. This only made Jennie laugh harder.

"Oh, you're going to need to get pads too," she said.

"Pads?" Aaron asked.

Shaking her head, Jennie said, "Tampons go on the inside. The pads are for any leakage."

"That was more than I needed to know," Paul said.

"You and me both," Aaron said.

Jennie couldn't help but keep laughing at the two. She only wished she had a camera to capture the looks on their faces.

It felt good to laugh again. It felt like it had been an eternity since she had actually had something to laugh at. It also felt good to have guys talking to her. Especially a pair of cute guys like Aaron and Paul. Aaron with that short, brush cut hair and those piercing blue eyes and Paul with that wavy blonde hair. Jennie just wanted to run her fingers through it.

Shivering at the thought, she said, "You might want to also get some other stuff too. We could use some toothpaste and toothbrushes, some hairbrushes and everyone in here needs deodorant. Maybe some shampoo, some conditioner and hairspray too."

"Okay, we'll see what we can do," Paul said. "Thanks, Jennie."

"Anytime," she said with a smile for Paul.

Jennie wandered off and Paul was relieved to see her go. He'd caught her looking at him quite a few times over the past few days with a very hungry look. He couldn't tell if she wanted to screw him or eat him. She seemed nice enough, just a little used up. He'd heard he tell someone she was 42, but Paul thought she could easily pass for 52.

Shaking off any thoughts of Jennie, he asked Aaron, "So what is the plan, man?"

Over the next couple of hours the two tossed ideas back and forth. At first, they talked about the gas station on the corner, but neither knew if it carried tampons.

"I still think we should check," Paul said. "Worst case scenarios we have to make a run to Safeway but I'd rather not."

The two agreed to try the mini mart at the gas station and, if they couldn't find any of what they needed, they would go for Safeway.

They both grabbed backpacks and loaded them with a duffel bag each. They only took a pistol each and left the shotgun behind.

"I don't want to lose a duffel full of stuff if I have to pull a shotgun," Aaron commented.

A little after ten that night, they were ready to go. Standing at the door, Aaron adjusted his radio's headset and said, "Try to stay off the radio as much as possible. Don't break radio silence unless something gets in the way of us getting back here. If you hear gunfire, _do not_ come rushing to our rescue. Got it?"

Jo, Jimmy and Larry nodded. Each of them had grabbed a radio and set it to Aaron and Paul's frequency. Jo and Jimmy were going to stay by the tarp up front and keep watch for zombies while Larry waited to open the door when Paul and Aaron got back.

Danny stood nearby fidgeting. "Are you sure me and Andy can't come?"

Aaron glared at him and said, "After last time, yeah, I'm sure. I wouldn't want there to be any accidents."

Danny caught the meaning behind Aaron's words and decided to make himself scarce.

"Jo, Jimmy, get up front and tell me what you see," Aaron said.

The pair made their way up to the front windows and peeked past the tarp.

"_I don't see any by the back door or the wall_," Jo said over the radio.

"_There are two in the street_," Jimmy said. "_They're not looking this way from what I can tell though_."

Aaron put his hand on the door handle and pushed it open, just enough to peek out. Fortunately, power was still on and the street and parking lot lights were on, giving him a good view of the area. He could see the zombies out in the street. They were looking at the eye doctor's office across street.

"You still wanna do this?" Aaron asked Paul.

"Let's just get it done so I don't have to listen to anymore lessons in feminine hygiene," Paul said.

He pushed the door open slowly, keeping a careful watch on the two zombies. With a quick look around for any more, he made his way out the door and knelt by the Alvarez truck. Paul made his way over to him and Larry closed the door with a soft click.

The pair watched the zombies for any sign that they had heard the door but after a minute they were sure they hadn't heard it.

Paul jogged over and stopped behind the Haggerty truck. The two zombies were the only ones still and sight and they were still watching something over at the eye doctors. Paul was itching to know what the hell had them so enthralled but kept his mind on the mission. The mission to get tampons, he thought to himself with a laugh.

He waved Aaron over.

"Not much cover the rest of the way to the car wash," Paul whispered.

"Yeah, I'm thinking we run it together. If we get cut off I'd rather be with someone that out on my own," Aaron said.

"Aww, you do care," Paul said. Aaron rolled his eyes.

The two sprinted across the rest of the Big 5 parking lot.

Between the Big 5 parking lot and the gas station/car wash next door was a small hill. The hill was decorated in typical southwestern fashion with a bunch of short, scrubby bushed and lots of rocks. There was plenty of room between the bushes so Aaron wasn't worried about making noise because of the bushes. It was the rocks clattering when they stepped on them or one of the two slipping and falling.

The pair slowed, and made their way as quietly as possible up the hill, both watching the zombies for any sign that they had been heard. Every shift in rocks under their boots, every rustle of their packs made their hearts race.

Finally, the pair crested the hill and made it into the car wash parking lot. They jogged into one of the car wash stalls and huddled behind the wall for a moment to catch their breath.

"They're over to the car wash," Jimmy told the rest of the Big 5 group. Everyone was sitting near the registers nervously waiting to hear how the two were doing.

"I wish I could have gone with them," Jo said loudly, glaring at her parents. They had absolutely forbid her from going back out of the store after the last Safeway trip. She was 22 years old, who were they to tell her no any more?

"Yeah," Jennie added from the crowd, "it's never a good idea to send a guy to buy tampons."

"They're just standing around at the car wash for some reason," Jimmy said.

"_Can you two please turn off the hands-free on those radios?_" Aaron's voice said over the radio.

Sheepishly, Jo and Jimmy reached down and snapped off the hands-free button. They could both still clearly hear Larry snickering into his.

Aaron peered around the wall and checked on the two zombies. They were still just standing there.

"A couple more yards and we'll have the automatic car wash between us and them," he whispered. "When we go, I want to cut a little left so we're running by the wall to River Bluffs. If we get spotted we can climb over and make our way back to Big 5."

"How come it's all block wall here and by Big 5 it's just wooden fence?" Paul asked.

Aaron glared at him and asked, "How the hell should I know?"

Paul shrugged and the two headed across the car wash parking lot. Paul was already sweating hard and not from exertion. He'd faced combat in the Army more than once but this was so much different. This enemy wouldn't run from gunfire. They wouldn't stop and need help if you injured them. This enemy knew nothing of mercy, nothing of peace and they would not stop.

The pair stopped at the wall to the mini mart that serviced the gas station and car wash. Aaron looked at Paul's sweat stained face and asked, "You gonna be able to do this?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's just get it done," Paul answered.

"Hang on," Aaron said, an idea popping into his head. "Don't go in yet, I want to go past the mini mart to the oil change center."

"Why?" Paul asked, his eyes going wide.

"Trust me," Aaron said, jogging off.

The pair ran past the front of the mini mart, across the parking lot and behind the lube and oil change center. They stopped at the corner of the oil change center and took a look around. Ahead of them was the shopping center with Safeway in it. And all over the parking lot were zombies. Aaron counted at least two dozen of them wandering the parking lot.

He looked right, down the street between Safeway and the gas station, and saw more zombies. They were at least a hundred yards away but they could still be a problem.

To his left, he saw the gates to the River Bluffs Gated Community were firmly closed. His mind raced. Had the gates been closed this entire time? If they had been closed all along, they might have an entire walled community, with river access, that they could clear out and make their own.

"Okay," he said to Paul, "back to the mini mart."

Paul wanted to ask Aaron what the big deal head been but decided to wait until they were comfortably back in a locked store with lots of guns and food. And tampons, he thought, can't forget the tampons and pads.

The pair ran up to the mini mart and peered in through the windows. Everything looked intact. There were no signs of a struggle, no blood and, most importantly, no zombies.

Paul pulled his pistol and pulled the door open. A soft chime sounded as the door opened. For an instant, the two froze. Had the zombies heard?

Weapons drawn the pair hurried into the store and pulled the door shut behind them. They did a quick check of the aisles before ducking behind the counter.

"_The zombies are doing something_," Jimmy said. "_They're looking around for something_."

"They must have heard the damn bell on the door," Paul said.

"Jimmy, keep watch on them. We'll let you know as soon as we're ready to come out," Aaron said.

With Paul covering him, Aaron pulled off his backpack and pulled out the duffel. Crawling his way up the aisle, Aaron grabbed everything medicinal he could find. Tampons, toothpaste, toothbrushes, even condoms went into his duffel.

"Condoms, huh? Planning a little fun tonight?" Paul asked with a grin.

"Better safe than sorry. Besides, do you want to have to go shopping again?"

"_Hell_ no," Paul said.

Aaron filled his duffel and slid back over to Paul.

"We should check the store room," he said.

Paul groaned. "What is it with store rooms? We have bad luck with store rooms, remember?"

"We don't have Andy and Danny this time so we should be good," Aaron said.

Aaron made his way deeper into the store. He pulled his pistol and pushed the store room door open with his foot. The room was well lit and he didn't see or hear anything.

Paul joined Aaron and was about to go into the store room when Aaron's hand flashed out and stopped him.

Aaron sniffed the air. He smelled something rotten and, with the power still on, he was sure it wasn't food.

"Hello. Anyone in there?" He asked loudly.

A snarling zombie spun around the corner and flung itself at Aaron. Aaron scrambled backwards, letting go of the door as he shot at the zombie. His two shots hit it in the chest, barely staggering it. Paul fired off a shot but missed completely.

The zombie hit the door to the store room and staggered. It grabbed the door and yanked it open, launching itself at its prey. The second it had been delayed by the door gave Aaron and Paul enough time to get a better aim and fire. Both of their shots hit it in the head. The bullets punched through its head, splattering brain and blood all over the door and wall behind it.

The two stood for a moment, hearts racing, as they looked down at the body. That had been too close.

"Well, we know what happened to the clerk," Paul said.

"_Guys, the zombies are coming at you!_" Jimmy said frantically.

"Into the store room," Aaron said. "We'll get what we need and then head out through the store room door."

He and Paul headed into the store room. They gave the room a quick sweep but didn't find any more zombies. After a few minutes of checking boxes, they found more supplies. They quickly filled their duffel bags and backpacks.

While they were filling their bags, both heard a steady thumping noise coming from the front of the store. The zombies had found them.

With their bags full, the pair made their way to the store room door where they ran into another problem.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me," Paul snapped, looking at the door. The door had no handle, just a deadbolt lock. A deadbolt that had to be opened by a key.

"What the hell are we gonna do now?" Paul asked.

Aaron gave it a moment of thought and said, "The clerk. He might still have his keys on him."

"Yeah, and if we go out there the zombies will see us. They might break the glass and get in," Paul said, his voice shaky.

Aaron put his hand on Paul's shoulder and said, "Paul, you need to calm down. We're going to get out of this if we stay focused. We get the keys, we open the door and we haul ass back to Big 5. There's the plan. Are you with me?"

Paul took a deep breath and let it out. This crazy shit was really starting to get to him. Fucking zombies, man. They just really creeped him out.

Taking another breath, he let it out and said, "Okay. I'm good. Let's get the fuck out of here."

They left the duffel bags by the exit and made their way back to the store room door. Aaron pushed it open and went for the clerk while Paul covered him. At the front of the store, the two zombies went wild. Prey. They had found prey. They clawed and punched at the doors, trying to get to their prey.

Aaron ignored them and he reached into the clerk's pockets. His hands closed on the keys and he yanked them out of the pocket.

One of the zombies caught its hand on the door handle and accidentally pulled the door open. The second zombie shoved the door all the way open and charged Aaron and Paul. Paul fired off three shots, managing to hit the zombie in the head with his third.

The first zombie freed its hand in time to turn and have a bullet punch through its head, courtesy of Aaron.

From outside the store, the two could hear snarls and feet running.

Paul started towards the front door but Aaron grabbed his shirt.

"We need to get the duffel bags," Aaron said.

Shoving Paul back into the store room, they made their way to the exit. Aaron opened the door with the clerk's keys. They grabbed the duffel bags and ran for Big 5.

Paul looked over his shoulder and felt his heart freeze. Behind then, a dozen or more zombies were giving chase and closing fast. Panicking, Paul dropped the duffel bag and raced for Big 5. At the hill, he slipped in the rocks and fell hard into the Big 5 parking lot.

His Glock went flying from his hands as he crashed to the ground, scraping his hands and arms open on the asphalt. He lay there, staring at the ground. He couldn't go on. Not like this. Maybe he would just lay there and let it be over.

Aaron stopped when he heard Paul fall. Dropping his duffel, he ran over, grabbed Paul's backpack and dragged him to his feet.

"Run, motherfucker!" Aaron yelled, shoving Paul towards Big 5 as the zombies crested the hill.

Aaron managed to snag his duffel as the two sprinted for Big 5.

"Larry, open the door!" Aaron screamed.

The door opened and the two caught the wonderful sight of the clean and safe interior of Big 5. They sprinted the last few feet and, once inside, Paul collapsed to the floor. Aaron dropped his duffel and helped Larry slam the door. A second later the zombie mob slammed into the door and began pounding on it. The door rattled but it held.

Letting out a shaky breath, Aaron went over and knelt by Paul.

"You okay, buddy?" He asked.

Paul's arms and hands were cut open pretty badly from when he'd fallen. Small pools of blood were forming in his palms as he sat there. Aaron knew it had to hurt, but the look on Paul's face showed a much deeper hurt. A hurt that couldn't be fixed with some bandages.

Tears ran down Paul's face. He burned inside. He had given up. For one second, he had just flat out given up. If it hadn't been for Aaron he would be dead. He had thought he was stronger than this. Stronger than Jimmy who had frozen twice at the sight of zombies.

But he wasn't.

"How do you do it?" He whispered. "How do you keep going?"

Aaron reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. Opening it, he showed Paul a picture.

"Her name's Katie. She's 6. Her mom has custody of her and they live in St. Louis. I wake up every morning forcing myself to believe she's safe somewhere and that if I keep going I'll get to see her again," Aaron said. "And when I see her again, she's going to be proud to meet you because you helped keep her daddy alive through this."

Paul wiped his tears on his sleeve. He looked at Aaron for a moment.

"You should write for Hallmark," he said.

Aaron roared with laughter. After a moment, Paul joined Aaron's laughter with his own. For a brief moment, the zombies pounding at the door didn't matter. The end of the world didn't matter. For just that moment, it all went away as two friends shared a laugh.


	7. Fresh air

The next morning, Paul woke up and staggered into the bathroom. He turned on the faucet and winced when he grabbed the faucet knob. He looked at the bandages wrapped around his palms and forearms, reminders of last night's trip into hell.

He splashed a little water on his face and took a look at himself in the mirror. His eyes were bright red and had huge bags under them. He looked just like he felt.

Shutting the water off, he wandered out of the bathroom. A few people were up and getting breakfast ready. He wondered if today was Spaghetti O's or Dinty Moore, neither of which sounded very good.

He walked up to the front and grabbed a Snickers bar from the rack by the register and opened it. He wandered aimlessly around the store, eating the candy bar. He spotted Jimmy sitting at the computer, his face nearly pressed to the screen.

Walking over to the manager's office he asked, "What's up, Jimmy?"

Jimmy jumped at the sound of Paul's voice. "Man! You scared the hell out of me," he said.

"Sorry," Paul said. "You find anything interesting?"

"Nah, just the same old stuff," Jimmy said standing up and stretching. He'd been up for three hours already, trolling the internet for any new information.

Paul looked at the boy for a moment. Jimmy was one of their weakest links. He'd frozen at the sight of the zombies twice. But, at least he didn't give up and lay on the ground waiting to be zombie food, Paul reminded himself.

Trying his best to ignore thoughts about last night, Paul asked, "Jimmy, how much do you know about using a gun?"

"Not much," Jimmy admitted. "Larry gave us a quick course on how to clean one and stuff, but I don't remember most of it."

"Wanna learn a little on how to use one?" Paul asked.

Jimmy's eyes lit up and he asked, "Really?"

Paul smiled at his enthusiasm. "Yeah, really. Come on."

Jimmy hesitated. "I don't know. Maybe it's not such a good idea."

"Why not?" Paul asked.

Jimmy sighed and said, "Well, every time I see one of them, I freak. I want to run or shoot or _something_ but I just _can't_!"

Paul put his hand on Jimmy's shoulder. "It's normal to be afraid. Hell, it's normal to be terrified of _these_ damn things. But we can't let that fear control us. We have to push past it. Let me show you how to use a gun right. That way, when you do face these things again, you'll still be afraid but you'll have a really big gun to make the bad guys, and the fear, go away."

Jimmy grabbed Paul's hand and shook it. "Thanks, Paul. This means a lot to me."

"No problem. Come on."

The two headed over to the gun section, Jimmy practically skipping. Paul watched the kid and smiled. Maybe he could help Jimmy toughen up a little. Maybe it would help him stop thinking about last night for a few minutes.

Someone shaking his shoulder dragged Aaron out of a deep, and thankfully, dreamless sleep. He groggily sat up, wiping sleep from his eyes. Who the hell was with him to wake him up? He wondered.

His heart jumped as his brain finally kicked in and he remembered what was going on. Throwing the sleeping bag off of him, he grabbed for his gun.

"Aaron! Calm down!" Jo said beside him.

Aaron stared at her for a moment before he took a deep shaky breath and let it out.

"Damn, Jo, are you out to give me a heart attack?" He asked her.

"Sorry, but you've got to see what I found," she said.

Aaron could hear the enthusiasm in her voice and, looking at her, the way she was biting her lower lip like she always did when she was very excited, he was sure she'd found something good.

He put his boots on and strapped his gun to his waist. Standing up, he asked, "Okay, what do you got?"

She grabbed his hand and practically yanked him of his feet as she dragged him towards the store room. Shoving the door open, she pulled him to the very back of the store room.

"I was up on the second level storage," she said. "I was going through some of the winter stuff to see if there was anything good. Well, I hit my head on one of the shelves. You know how you always have to look up at something when you hit your head? Well, I looked up and saw that!"

Aaron looked to where she was pointing. He could see the second level storage but the only thing he saw was a bunch of boxes.

He looked at Jo and shrugged his shoulders. Sighing in exasperation, she said, "The roof!"

He looked up at the roof. He saw the ladder leading up the roof hatch but…

His jaw dropped. The roof hatch, how the hell had he forgotten about it? His jaw still hanging open, he looked at Jo. She was giggling and grinning from ear to ear. Aaron threw his arms around her and pulled her into a bear hug, giggling like a fool.

"Jo, you are a freaking genius!" He said.

She beamed as she wrapped her arms around him and pressed her face into his chest. It felt so good in his arms. He felt so solid and she knew she was safe with him. Everything that had happened had been worth it for this moment.

Letting go of her, Aaron said, "Go grab some binoculars. I'm gonna go get Paul."

With that, Aaron sped out of the store room. Jo stood for a moment, basking in the glow of his attention. She closed her eyes and could still feel his arms around her. Sighing contentedly, she went to get the binoculars.

Aaron ran across the store, getting several looks of concern from everyone.

"Everything okay?" Larry asked as Aaron ran past.

"Yup!" Aaron yelled over his shoulder.

He skidded to stop at the gun counter, where Paul had been showing Jimmy how to load and use a shotgun. Paul had watched Aaron's mad dash across the store, wondering what had gone wrong now.

"You've gotta see this!" Aaron said to Paul.

"What is it?" Paul asked.

"Just come see!" Aaron said before running back across the store.

"I'll be right back," Paul said to Jimmy, running across the store after Aaron.

Paul ran into the store room. He looked right, at the door outside. He could still hear the zombies banging on it. Shivering at the sound, he looked left and saw Aaron starting up a ladder.

Paul headed over and followed Aaron up the ladder. Grabbing the rungs with his injured hands burned and took him longer than he would have liked. Grumbling under his breath, he made it to the second level only to find Aaron climbing another ladder.

"Aaron, what's the big…"

Words failed him as Aaron reached up, twisted a lever and threw open the roof hatch. Bright sunlight poured down through the hole and Paul could see beautiful, clear sky.

His injured hands forgotten, he shot up the ladder and out onto the roof. He sucked in a deep lungful of fresh air. It had been too damn long since he had been able to breathe fresh air and not have to worry about being eaten while he did it.

The pair grinned at each like idiots for a moment before taking a look around. In the distance they could see smoke from several different fires. Somewhere in the distance, they could hear engines but it sounded like they were going away from Big 5.

Aaron walked over and looked down by the store room door. He counted ten zombies banging on the door and wall. It looked like a few had decided to go find something else to do since last night.

He walked back over to Paul as Jo popped out of the roof hatch with binoculars. They each took a pair and took a closer look around.

Aaron looked over at the Safeway parking lot. It looked like more zombies had migrated into it since last night. He quickly counted thirty and knew there were a lot more. The road in front of Big 5 had some wandering down it too. It looked like the days of being able to go out and get supplies easily were over.

"I think we need to post a couple of people up here just in case a car comes by or something," Paul said. "I don't think we'll have any problem with volunteers."

Jo laughed and said, "I'll be the first to volunteer!"

"Screw you, girly," Paul said, grinning at her. "_I'm_ the first volunteer."

"I think we can have as many people up here as they want. We just need to keep it quiet and stay away from the edges," Aaron said.

After far too short a time in the fresh air and sun, the three made their way back down into the store. Aaron called everyone together and let them know about the roof hatch.

"Why the hell didn't you tell us about that sooner? Why would you hold that information back?" Gloria Redman snapped.

"I forgot about it," Aaron said, rolling his eyes at her.

"Well, I know I want some fresh air but what kind of liability insurance do you have for me if I fall off a ladder?" She asked.

"We'll call 911 and put you outside to wait for them," Danny said making his brother burst out laughing.

Even Aaron couldn't help but chuckle at that one. Gloria huffed and stomped away from the group.

"Okay, anyone wanna go get some sun and fresh air?" Paul asked.

The Alvarez family decided to have a picnic on one corner of the roof. Jo dragged Aaron over to join in. After lunch, Aaron noticed that Little Javier's diaper was extremely dirty. He chuckled and said, "He's been playing pretty hard, hasn't he?"

Mr. and Mrs. Alvarez look at each other and back at Aaron.

"Actually, we're reusing his diapers," Mrs. Alvarez said.

"What? Why didn't you say something? We were at the store and they had a whole bunch of diapers," Aaron said.

"You've done enough for us already, Aaron," Mr. Alvarez said. "You came and got us and brought us to our little girl. Asking you to risk your life for diapers would be wrong."

Jo's face turned crimson. She had asked him to risk himself for tampons but hadn't even thought about her baby brother. She swirled her spoon around the can of chili she had been eating, no longer hungry and wishing she could just disappear.

Aaron frowned at the Alvarez's. "Well, the next time we're out, diapers are a priority on my list. No arguing," he said.

Paul and Jimmy spent the afternoon practicing with a shotgun. Paul showed Jimmy how to load it, chamber a round and aim. Jimmy's mother sat nearby watching the two with an irritated look on her face. She did not think her baby should be playing with guns. He was too gentle of a boy for it. But she didn't say anything. She might be irked, but seeing him happy, having him make new friends and having him off of that damn computer was worth a little irritation.

The survivors spent the rest out on the roof. With things as bad as they were, the fresh air and sun were the boost their morale needed, even if they could still hear the zombies growling and banging on the door below.


	8. The Phone Call

Aaron sat alone in the manager's office, enjoying the few minutes of peace and quiet he was stealing. It had been a long night of work, but it had been well worth it.

After the newness of the roof had worn off, he had started to look at what other uses they could put the roof too. Already the Haggertys, Jimmy and his mother had moved some of the quick open tents up to the roof. With Fall coming, it was decent enough out at night to be able to sleep and they were going to take advantage of the fresh air while they could.

Jimmy had stopped Aaron at one point and said, "Hey, Aaron. One of the sites I was reading had an idea I liked. They have these things called 'bug-out bags.' They're backpacks filled with food, water and stuff. They have them by their emergency exits just in case they need to evacuate."

Aaron loved the idea. He had enlisted almost everyone to get some bags by the store room door. They had also filled several and lugged them up to the roof.

"Why are we bringing these up to the roof?" Paul grumbled. "It's not like we can jump off or anything."

"Dude, you were in the Army and you're at a sporting good store with an ex-Marine. You should have known I'd find a way to use the rappelling gear we have," Aaron said, making Paul groan.

"It's not like zombies can climb ladders," Paul grumbled to himself. "We could just hang out on the roof, but noooo…"

Aaron grabbed the Haggertys and Larry to help him and Paul hammer climbing pitons into the roof and tie off the nylon climbing rope they had found. They set up ten pitons on the north side of the roof, closest to the River Bluffs Gated Community.

Aaron sent Larry back downstairs to get a box of gloves to tie down by the ropes. If they needed to evacuate, Aaron figured they'd slide down the ropes. It was a little risky, but it was better than taking time to get a harness on and having to get it off again when they got to the ground.

Paul looked over the edge of the roof and asked, "Okay, we're down on the ground, now what?"

"Tonight, after it's dark, we're going to lower some boxes down. We'll use those as a little staircase up and over the fence," Aaron answered.

"Do you really think that fence will keep them back?" Paul asked. "It doesn't look like it's in the best shape."

"Once we're over, they might lose track of us. If they manage to get through we go down to the marina and get a boat. I don't know, Paul. We'll have to see what happens when it happens."

Paul snorted a laugh. "Typical Marine. You guys should really learn this thing call 'planning.' And what about our dead friends? You don't think they're just going to stand there and wait for us to climb over the fence, do you?"

"We need to block off the ends of the alley," Aaron said. "I just want to wait until they calm down and wander off. Then we'll get the alley blocked off and have plenty of time to get over the fence if they break in."

Later on that night, they used extra rope to pull several boxes up to the roof, and then lower them to the ground. They had most of the boxes down and a haphazard set of stairs made when the zombies heard the noise they were making. Several rounded the corner and grabbed at a box the Haggertys were lowering. The zombies yanked it the rest of the way down, nearly pulling the Haggertys down as well.

"Motherfucker!" Danny yelled, pulling his pistol and firing down at the zombies. He fired every round in his clip, managing to only kill one zombie.

Aaron thought about just pushing Danny off the side and solving the problem he was continuing to be. He was pulled out of that happy thought by the sound of snarling and running coming from the Safeway side of the store.

Looking out towards Safeway, he watched a wave of zombies making their way towards Big 5.

"Good work, moron" he said to Danny. "Here comes a whole fucking bunch of them. Everyone stay quiet. Maybe they'll pass us by."

The group on the roof didn't move or speak as they listened to the zombie mob. They heard some of the zombies continue running up the road, past Big 5. Some of the zombies joined the group that was banging on the store room door.

Aaron moved along the roof, as quietly as possible, to the edge by the road. He peeked over the edge and saw some of the zombies had just stopped in the middle of the road and were looking around.

Paul joined Aaron and the two watched the zombies for a minute before Paul waved Aaron back from the edge.

"They're trying to figure out where the gunfire came from," Paul whispered. "That's not just brain dead zombie type behavior. That requires a little thought."

"Yeah," Aaron whispered back, "and that scares the shit out of me."

Aaron leaned back in his chair, thoughts of last night and zombies far from his mind. All that mattered now was sitting back and taking a few minutes to enjoy some peace and quiet.

"You shut your fucking liberal, traitor ass mouth or I'll shut it for you!"

Aaron groaned. Here we go again, he thought. Getting up, he opened the office door and stepped out into the store. By the registers the Haggertys and Larry were shouting and pointing their fingers at each other.

"Typical Republi-sheep. Where's your master now? Haven't heard any news on him. Not that that's a bad thing, he couldn't do the job right before, why would I expect him to be able to do it right now?" Larry yelled.

"He's somewhere working to make this country safe. You know, the country where you liberal pussies are allowed to bitch about the hard work he does and not get arrested?" Andy shouted back.

"Yeah, right. Idiot's pry out there planning on invading Canada because they have trees and, you know, trees are weapons of mass destruction!"

"Will you three shut the fuck up?" Aaron yelled. "I am not listening to this shit every goddamn day. Either knock it off about this useless political bull…"

The phone ringing cut off anything else Aaron might have said. The four stood frozen as the phone rang a second time.

Shaking off his amazement, Aaron sprinted back to the manager's office, one thought running through his head.

Katie.

He ran into the office and picked up the phone.

"Hello?" He asked, praying to hear her voice.

"Please you've got to help us," the male voice said.

Aaron squeezed his eyes shut and bent over the desk. He felt like he had been punched in the gut. He had wanted so badly for it to be her.

"Hello? Are you still there?" The voice on the other end asked.

"Yeah," he said quietly, "I'm still here."

"We're trapped next door, in Del Taco. Can you help us?"

"What's your status?" Aaron asked.

The man must have pulled the phone away from his mouth; Aaron could barely hear him say, "He wants to know out status."

In the background he heard a woman say, "Give me the phone."

"Who am I talking to?" The woman asked.

"Aaron Masters. Who are you?"

"Lisa Cavanaugh. Listen, Aaron, we've been in here since all hell broke loose. The cashiers here locked the doors when the crazies started running the streets."

In the background Aaron heard a loud noise over and over. Another man's voice in the background yelled, "Jesus, Lisa, hurry up, they're getting excited!"

"Okay! We saw you yesterday on the roof. We tried to bail out of here this morning but there were a couple out back. They chased us back and we didn't get the back door closed in time. We're trapped in the manager's office here and they are trying to break through the door. Can you help us?" She asked.

Aaron thought about it for a moment and said, "I don't know how bad it is outside right now but I'd say, if anything, we won't be able to make a move until after dark."

"I really don't know if the door here is gonna last that long, buddy," she said.

"It is too risky to try something during the day. Find a way to brace the door and we'll see what we can do. Call back every hour on the hour to let us know your status," he said.

"Don't keep us waiting too long, Aaron," she said as she hung up.

Aaron turned towards the door and found the Haggertys and Larry standing there watching him.

"Who was it?" Andy asked.

"A complication" Aaron answered. "I'm going up the roof and take a look at things."

He made his way up to the roof, the others following, itching to know what was going on. Aaron knelt down by the edge of the roof and took stock of the situation. Del Taco's parking lot had at least a dozen zombies wandering around it. To make matters worse, the back door to Del Taco was standing wide open.

"Larry, get Paul and let's reconvene downstairs where we can talk," Aaron said.

Once the group, including Paul, was back down in the store, Aaron let them know what was going on.

"Here's what we've got," Aaron said to the group. "We have… Damn, I didn't ask her how many people were over there. Anyway, we have at least three people next door at Del Taco. They're trapped in the manager's office with the back door wide open and at least one zombie beating on the office door. They want us to mount a rescue."

"Right on!" Danny said. "Let's get our shit and get going!"

"Slow down, cowboy," Paul said. "There's no way we can pull this off during the day. There's too damn many of them out there already, thanks to someone."

Danny glared at Paul. The fucking zombie had nearly pulled him and Andy off the roof. He had a right to make the motherfucker pay for that.

"I agree with Paul. We should wait until night," Larry added.

"We have one other question to consider too. Should we even try to help them?" Aaron asked.

The group stared at Aaron, dumbfounded. How could he even ask such a thing? Then they exploded at him. He raised his hands and said, "It's something we have to think about. We only have so much food and the more mouths we have to feed the sooner we have to go shopping again."

"That's kinda cold there, Aaron," Larry commented.

"Well, Larry, someone has to think about the cold hard numbers. If it makes me an asshole, then I'm an asshole. I don't care."

"So are we putting it to a vote or something?" Danny asked. "Cause I say we help those people."

"I'm with Danny," Andy added.

"Damn, I hate agreeing with Republicans but they're right," Larry said.

Paul stared at Aaron. "You weren't serious about not rescuing them, we're you?" he asked.

"Yes, I am. It is a factor we have to consider. Do I want to save them? Yes. I'd love to save as many people as possible but we have to look at all of the angles," Aaron said.

"Well, if this is a vote, no matter what, the ayes have it. So we're doing it," Paul said, keeping his eyes locked with Aaron's.

Aaron nodded and said, "Alright, then we do it by the book. We go tonight, after it's dark. We'll need to create a diversion to get the zombies out of the parking lot so we can have a clear shot over."

"Yeah, and while we're there I could go for a burger right about now," Danny said.

Aaron looked at him, a smile tugging at his lips. "That's one of the smartest things you have ever said, Danny. We'll take some backpacks and load up on as many burger patties as we can get. I'll get someone to clean out the freezer in the break room and the bait freezer."

"You three," Aaron said, pointing at the Haggertys and Larry, "get your guns cleaned and ready for tonight. While you're doing that try and think of what we can use as a diversion."

The threesome headed off, leaving Aaron and Paul alone.

"I take it I'm not going," Paul said, glaring at Aaron.

"Not with your hands injured. We're going to be climbing down, and probably up, ropes," Aaron said. "Add to that, you might have to shoot and I don't know if you can do that right now."

"Damn, you really are in an asshole mood today, aren't you?" Paul snapped. "First, you don't want to rescue these people. Then, you tell me you don't think I can hack it?"

"That's not what I said and you know it. You're hurt and need to heal. Plus, I need you back here to take charge and do things the right way," Aaron snapped back.

Paul stared into Aaron's eyes for a moment before asking, "So, this isn't because of what happened when we went to the gas station?"

"What the hell are you talking about, Paul?" Aaron asked. "Here, let me spell it out. I wish to God you were going over to Del Taco with me. You are my first choice to have cover my back. Do you fucking get it yet?"

Paul looked down at the floor, doing everything to now avoid Aaron's gaze. "I'm sorry, Aaron. I just thought that after the other night when I… When…"

Aaron put his hand on Paul's shoulder and said, "It's alright. The other night was hell, man, but we made it through."

"Yeah, but you didn't lose your duffel," Paul said.

"Jesus Christ, Paul, is that what this is about? A fucking duffel bag? Who gives a shit? We got what we needed."

Paul shook his head and said, "You don't get it. I dropped the duffel because I was scared. When I fell, I just wanted to lay there and die. I didn't care if they ate me, I just wanted to die."

"Paul, I nearly dropped my duffel too," Aaron admitted. "I was scared out of my mind but we made it through. Together. That's what matters."

Paul snorted a humorless laugh. "No, Aaron, what matters is you go out there and save the day. I go out and nearly freeze up when I have to shoot a zombie. I nearly lay down and die because I am so terrified. Look, let's just drop it. What do you want me to do tonight?"

Aaron hesitated. Should he keep pushing Paul to talk about his fear or let it drop? Aaron needed Paul. He needed Paul to see the flaws in his plans and make them better. He had come to trust Paul. What would he do if Paul lost it?


	9. Rescue

Several hours, and check in phone calls from Del Taco later, the Big 5 rescue party was ready to go.

Aaron peered over the edge of the roof and down into the alley below. Not seeing any zombies, he signaled Andy and Larry, the two other members of his rescue party, to lower their ropes. Once the ropes were down, Aaron gave a thumbs up to Danny.

Danny took a deep breath and nocked his arrow. He took careful aim at the eye doctor's window and let fly. The arrow flew true and shattered the window. Glass exploded into the building and the zombies milling around in the street rushed over to investigate the noise.

Paul watched the zombies head out of the Del Taco parking lot. Once they were clear, he gave Aaron's team a thumbs up.

Aaron's team climbed over the retaining wall and slid down the ropes. Once they were down, Aaron peeled off his gloves and led his team to the corner of Big 5. A quick survey of the parking lot showed it still clear.

Aaron pulled his Glock and looked back at Andy and Larry. Both were already soaked in sweat but they nodded to him that they were ready. Letting out a breath he didn't even know he had been holding, Aaron took off across the Del Taco parking lot, the other two right behind him.

They made it across the parking lot and to the wide open back door unnoticed. Aaron paused at the door, giving the other two a chance to catch up. Steeling himself, Aaron walked straight through the doorway, gun raised. Andy, pulling his Glock from its holster, came in behind him and stopped. Larry came in last and pulled the door shut behind him.

Aaron had expected the two zombies beating on the office door to have noticed him or the back door closing, but the pair remained intent on trying to break down the office door they were attacking. Aaron took the opportunity and closed to near point blank range. With two quick shots, he removed the zombie threat from inside Del Taco. Now he just had to worry about the much larger threat outside.

"_Rescue One, this is Base One, unfriendlies heard that. Danny's getting their attention back to us. Stand by before evac_," Paul's voice said over the radio.

"Copy that," Aaron replied.

On the roof, Danny nocked another arrow and shot it into another window at the doctor's office. The zombies went wild at the sound of the breaking glass. Those closest to the doctor's office began banging on the walls and windows, trying to find a way in. The ones farther from the doctor's office, hearing their brethren going wild, began trying to shove their way to the front, hoping to find a meal waiting for them.

In Del Taco, Aaron looked through the hole one of the zombies had punched through the office door. Inside, he could see the five survivors staring back at him. For a moment, they all stared at one another before Aaron asked, "So are we all going to stand around staring at each other or are we gonna get the fuck outta here?"

With a collective sigh of relief, the Del Taco survivors pulled the desk they had been bracing up against the door out of the way. They pulled open the door and an older man shoved his way to the front. He reached for Aaron's hand and paused, seeing the gun Aaron was still holding. Instead, he grabbed Aaron's shoulder and said, "Thank you! Oh God, thank you. I don't know how much longer that door was going to hold."

Moving on, he proceeded to shake Larry and Andy's hands.

"I am going to make sure you are rewarded for this, gentlemen. When the government restores order, I will take very good care of you," John Carter told his rescuers.

He was a very important person in River City, after all. He had invested early in land all around River City and waited. His patience had been rewarded as the Baby Boomers abandoned California in droves for somewhere with sun, water and, most of all, cheaper living. Now in his early fifties and a multi-millionaire, John lived like a king. And, as a king, he expected people to obey his orders.

"So, I'm assuming I will be escorted out first," he said.

"No," Aaron said, holstering his pistol and pulling off his backpack.

"What do you mean 'no?'?" John thundered.

Unzipping his backpack, Aaron pulled out a smaller, rolled up backpack. He tossed the pack to John and said, "You're going to fill that up with hamburger patties first. _Then_ we'll see about getting out of here."

"Excuse me? Do you know who I am?" John asked, looking Aaron up and down.

"Nope. Don't give a shit either," Aaron said. "Listen up, people. You're going to do what I say, when I say. We have a plan and if we follow that plan, we'll all be back in Big 5 having burgers in a few minutes. If you can't handle that, you can stay here, plain and simple. Everyone got that?"

John glared at Aaron. Who was this uppity fuck to tell him what to do? When this was over, he would remember this little bastard and he would make sure the rest of his life was a living hell.

Aaron and Andy passed out backpacks while Larry pulled climbing harnesses out of his backpack. Once everyone had their harness on, Aaron had Chuck and Randy, the two Del Taco employees, lead the group to the freezer and begin loading each backpack with burger patties and any other food they could carry.

Aaron left his pack behind to be filled and made his way to the front counter. Keeping low, he peeked over the counter and out towards the street. He could see the mob of zombies out by the eye doctor's office all too clearly.

"Base One, this is Rescue One, that unfriendly crowd's getting bigger isn't it?" He asked.

"_Copy that, Rescue One. We had a bunch come down the street from the South side of the doctor's office. Also, another group just wandered up the street from past Safeway. I recommend you hurry the fuck up and get back quick_," Paul said.

"Big time copy that, Base One."

Lisa joined Aaron at the counter and looked out at the mass of zombies.

"Holy shit," she whispered. "Are we going to be able to get over to Big 5?"

"Yeah, we're just going to have to be really quiet about it," he answered.

"Hey, I'm sorry about earlier when I yelled at you. When that guy punched a hole in the door, I thought we were screwed," she said.

"It wasn't a guy. It was a zombie," he said.

Lisa stared at him for a moment. She'd managed to call a friend while they had been holed up in Del Taco and her friend had told her these crazies were zombies but she still couldn't bring herself to believe it.

"Zombies aren't real," she said.

Aaron turned his gaze to her and their eyes locked. Aaron stared into her bright green eyes. He had to remind himself she'd been stuck in here, with probably no outside contact or information, since it all started. She hadn't been out there and seen what was going on.

Shaking his head, he said, "Believe what you want. Just stick to the plan and we'll all get through this. Speaking of which, didn't you tell Mr. Don't-You-Know-Who-I-Am that he would be carrying a pack?"

Lisa snorted a laugh. "Johnny Boy hears what he wants to hear and anything involving work is not something he hears."

"Hey, Aaron. We're all packed and ready," Larry called from in back.

Aaron and Lisa made their way back to the rest of the group. Everyone, including a very unhappy John Carter, pulled on a backpack.

"Base One, this is Rescue One, what's your status?" Aaron said.

"_Rescue One, we've got the unfriendlies mostly by the eye doctor's. However, there are still several at the store room door here. I suggest Plan B for evac, over_," Paul answered.

"Copy that. We're about ready here. We'll check in before we head out. Over."

"Okay people, here's the plan," Aaron said to his group. "We're not going to be able to get in the store room like I had hoped. Instead, we'll head for the back wall of Big 5. Once there, the people on the roof will lower four ropes, each with a carabineer tied to the end. Lock the carabineer into your harness and hold the rope. You'll be pulled up to safety."

"Why only four at a time?" Lisa asked.

"I don't want to pull the spotters off to help people up. I want to know if the zombies catch wind of us. If they do, we retreat back here and wait for Big 5 to create another diversion" Aaron said.

"Zombies?" John asked, sarcastically. "You expect me to believe those weirdoes are zombies?"

"I don't care what you believe. Just do what you're told and everything will be fine," Aaron said. This guy and Gloria Redman were going to get along perfectly, Aaron thought.

"Is everyone ready?" He asked.

"Wait," Lisa said. "Shouldn't we get guns?"

"We didn't bring any extras," Aaron said.

"Why not?" She asked.

"First, we had no idea if any of you were capable of handling one. Second, I don't want someone I don't know handling a firearm out there and just hauling off and shooting anything in sight. We need to keep it as quiet as possible out there, not play Rambo," Aaron answered.

Lisa frowned, but she could see his point of view.

"Now, is everyone ready?" Aaron asked again.

After everyone indicated they were, Aaron asked, "Base One, are we clear out back?"

"_Copy that, Rescue One. No unfriendlies visible in your area. Hurry the hell up and get back here_," Paul answered.

"We're on our way," Aaron said

He made his way to the back door and pushed it open. He took a look around, just to make sure it was clear, and waved the rest of the group out.

Aaron got ready to send the group across the parking lot when he caught the sound of rocks crunching underfoot. He started to turn when a zombie plowed into him from behind. The two crashed to the ground, the zombie on top of Aaron.

John Carter didn't wait around to see what was going to happen. Turning, he ran for Big 5. Carlos Gutierrez, one of the other Del taco customers, took off right behind him.

Larry didn't know what to do. Should he try to help Aaron or should he go with the two running for Big 5 to make sure they made it? In the end, he decided to help escort the two running for Big 5. He just wanted to make sure they made it safely. At least, that's what he told himself as he left Aaron to his fate.

When Aaron had hit the ground, he had let go of his pistol, not wanting to accidentally fire it and draw the attention of the zombie mob. With the zombie biting and clawing at his backpack, Aaron rolled onto his side. He felt the zombie slide off of him, giving him enough time to get his arms out of the back pack straps.

Rolling away from his pack and the zombie, Aaron got to his knees. But the zombie was quicker. It threw itself to its feet and lunged at him again.

This time Aaron was ready.

As the zombie hit him, he rolled with the impact. The two rolled across the asphalt, Aaron managing to wind up on top of the snarling monster. He pressed his left forearm down onto its throat and tried to hold the struggling monster down.

With his other hand, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the multi-tool he had started carrying after the Safeway incident. With a snap of his wrist, he extended the pliers from the tool.

Raising his arm, he brought the tool down on the zombie. The first impact shattered the zombie's nose. The second scraped skin from its dead cheek. The third hit the zombie's eye, exploding it in the socket. Putting the palm of his hand on the butt of the multi-tool, Aaron pushed down, shoving the tool through the zombie's eye socket and into its brain.

Seeing the guy from Big 5 shove a multi-tool through some crazy guy's eye was too much for Randy Miles. He turned and ran for Big 5. He was halfway across the parking lot when he got his first look at the mob of zombies around the eye doctor's office. The sight of so many of them stopped him dead in his tracks.

He didn't know what to do. What if those crazies in the road heard him before they could pull him up to the roof of Big 5? Or should he just go back into Del Taco and close the door on the rest of them? He stood there in the middle of the parking lot, his body twitching like it was trying to go two directions at once.

Andy ran out after the Del Taco guy. Why had he stopped? Didn't he see all the damn zombies? Andy grabbed Randy's arm and tried to drag him towards Big 5. Randy, tried to pull his arm free from Andy's grip.

Aaron sat astride the zombie, staring down at the blood on his hands. Deep down, he knew he hadn't killed the man. Some zombie had killed him. All Aaron had done was turn off the body.

Looking down at the little bit of the multi-tool he could still see, Aaron thought he was going to be sick. It was so much easier to kill with a gun. It was much less personal. All you had to do was point, pull the trigger and bang, it was over.

A hand came down on his shoulder and Aaron threw himself away from the touch, expecting another zombie. It was Lisa, he face very pale, standing there with Aaron's pistol in her hand.

"We need to go," she hissed at him.

He wanted to, but Aaron just couldn't get up.

"Stop fighting me, idiot! We're tryin' to rescue you," Andy whispered at Randy.

Randy punched Andy in the chest, still trying to pull his arm free from the other's grip. Andy had had enough. Letting go of Randy's arm, he said, "Fine. Stay out here and die, asshole."

His words cut through the indecision Randy had been feeling. He grabbed at Andy's arm and said, "Wait! Take me with…"

The rest of his words were lost as the wind was knocked out of him by a zombie running into him. He was propelled into Andy, and the three slammed to the ground. Andy and Randy struggled desperately to get away from the zombie as it snarled and snapped at them. Finally, Andy got out free and pulled his gun.

The zombie bit into Randy's arm, tearing off a chunk of bloody flesh. Randy screamed in agony as Andy tried to keep his shaky aim on the zombie's head. Chewing the chunk of flesh, the zombie looked up at Andy and growled.

It was too much for Andy to take. Not caring about his aim, Andy began firing wildly. Bullets tore into the zombie, one catching it in the head, killing it. But the zombie wasn't the only thing Andy hit.

Two bullets punched into Randy's chest. His screams of agony slowly turned to gurgles as blood filled his lungs. He tried to get up but his wasted body would not respond. One of the bullets had nicked his spine, paralyzing his legs.

The screaming and gunfire snapped Aaron's attention away from the zombie he had killed.

The gunfire drew more than Aaron's attention.

The zombie mob turned at the sound. Andy and Randy had been close enough to Big 5 that the building blocked them from the mob's sight. But the zombies could easily see Aaron, Lisa and Chuck.

Under their scrutiny, Chuck broke and ran for Big 5. Lisa grabbed at him but missed.

"No! You won't make it!" She yelled after him. "We need to get back in Del Taco!"

Her words fell on deaf ears. Chuck knew where was safe, and that was not Del Taco. He needed to be somewhere where people had guns. Already he could see Mr. Carter, the Mexican guy and the old guy from Big 5, safe on the roof. If they could make it, so could he.

Seeing the mob rounding the corner, Andy rushed to the wall, clipped the carabineer to his harness and yelled, "Pull me up!"

Lisa took aim with Aaron's pistol and fired at the mob. She couldn't tell if she killed any, but she knocked a few off their feet, causing them to trip up the runners behind them. She hoped to draw attention away from Chuck, maybe give him a chance to get to Big 5.

Aaron got to his feet and took another look at the disaster around him. He grabbed Lisa's arm and pulled her towards Del Taco. They went in and Aaron pulled the door shut behind him.

Lisa tore off her backpack and threw it away from her.

"Goddammit!" She yelled, kicking the wall.

"Base One, what's your status?" Aaron asked.

His only response was silence.

Chuck managed to make it to the wall just ahead of the zombies. He clipped the carabineer to his harness and felt himself being pulled to safety.

He was eight feet off the ground when a zombie reached up and grabbed hold of his foot.

On the roof, Tim and his fellow Safeway employee, Barry, slipped under the added weight and nearly fell. Managing to keep their footing, they tried to pull the struggling Chuck up but the zombie holding his foot had been joined by others.

Another zombie grabbed Chuck's other foot and tugged hard. Screaming in terror, he slipped lower and closer to the ravenous mob.

Tim felt his feet slide again. He was nearly to the retaining wall. There was no way they were going to get this guy up and he was not about to risk his life anymore.

He let go of the rope.

When he let go, the entire weight of Chuck, and the zombies yanking on him, was put squarely on Barry's shoulders. Barry was yanked forward, slamming into Tim. Everyone on the roof watched in horror as the two hit the retaining wall and went over the side of the roof.

The Big 5 group sat or stood. The cried or screamed. Whatever they did, they had to listen to the sound of three men screaming in agony as they were eaten alive.

Paul sat on the roof, staring at nothing. He didn't know how long Aaron had been yelling over the radio before he finally said, "We're here, Aaron."

"_Did he make it?_" Aaron asked.

"No," Paul answered, "and neither did Barry or Tim."

"_What! What the hell happened?_"

"Tim and Barry fell off the roof trying to pull that Del Taco guy up. I tried to grab the rope to help but it all happened so fast," Paul said.

In Del Taco, Aaron slumped to the ground. Four people. In less than five minutes two people he had tried to rescue were dead along with two of his own.

Lisa sat down next to him and asked, "Chuck didn't make it, did he?"

"No," Aaron whispered, "and two of my guys fell off the roof trying to pull him up."

Lisa took Aaron's hand and squeezed it.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"Me too," Aaron said.

On top of Big 5, Paul looked out at Del Taco. Some of the zombies were banging on the wall and back door. In the parking lot, he could see a bunch of them struggling over the remains of Andy.

Paul looked away from the sight, bile rising in his throat.

"Aaron, there's no way you're going to be able to get back tonight. You look secure from here. Camp out and we'll figure something out tomorrow," he said.

"_Copy that_," Aaron responded

Paul pulled off his headset and sat down. He felt empty. Again, he asked himself if this life was really worth living.

On another part of the roof, Danny held his little brother and rocked back and forth.

"I was so scared for a second there, little bro," he said.

Andy looked up at him, tears running down his face.

"Danny…"

Words failed him. Lifting his arm, Andy showed his brother the palm of his hand. On it, Danny could clearly see the teeth marks. Teeth marks that had blood dribbling out of them.


	10. The Day After

Danny grabbed Andy's hand and pulled it down. He looked around at the others. None of them were paying him and Andy any attention and he was sure they hadn't seen Andy's hand. He ushered his brother to the roof hatch and down into the store.

Dave Peters came over and asked, "Is it true? Did those two really fall off the roof?"

"Yeah," Danny said, "they did. And Andy… Uhh... He… Uhh… scraped his hand on the retaining wall climbing over. I'm gonna get some peroxide on it and patch him up."

"Glad you made it back, son," Dave said to Andy. "It's such a shame about Tim and Barry. Tim could be an ass and that Barry guy never seemed to talk to anyone other than Tim and Jennie. I guess they were the only people he felt comfortable with, being as how they all worked at Safeway before all of this.

Danny nodded his head in feigned understanding. Was this old guy ever gonna shut up and let him get Andy to the bathroom?

"Such a tragedy," Dave muttered.

"Yeah, it is. Listen, I gotta get Andy cleaned up a little so I'll talk to you later," Danny said, hustling Andy away.

Danny got Andy into the bathroom and put Andy's hand in the sink. He turned the cold water on and said, "Keep it under the tap. I'll be right back."

Danny hurried out of the bathroom and to the small stockpile of medical supplies Aaron and Paul had brought back from the gas station. He grabbed a bottle of peroxide and a box of oversize bandages.

He hurried back to the bathroom. Turning off the water, he pulled a few towels from the dispenser and dried Andy's hand. He opened the bottle of peroxide and said, "This is gonna hurt."

Holding Andy's hand over the sink, Danny poured the peroxide on the wound. Andy hissed in pain and bit his lip. Once the peroxide stopped bubbling, Danny rinsed off Andy's hand and dried it again. He pulled open the box of bandages and gently applied one to the wound.

"I'm so glad Aaron and Paul grabbed all this stuff. When he told me they were going out to get tampons, I thought he was nuts, you know? But he had more of a plan than just tampons. He knew we'd need this shit. We need to keep with that guy, little bro. He knows what to do and when to do it," Danny said.

"Except for tonight's plan," Andy said.

"Nah, I think tonight would have worked out if that idiot had've kept running for the wall. That's not your fault, Andy."

Andy thought about it for a moment and said, "Yeah, you're pry right. And if that zombie that jumped Aaron hadn't have been hiding on the other side of Del Taco. If someone had seen it, none of this would have happened, I bet. I bet we'd all be partying up on the roof and I wouldn't have… wouldn't have gotten… bit."

Andy lowered his head and began to sob. Danny grabbed his brother's head in both hands and made him look him in the eye.

"You're gonna be fine, Andy. It's just a scratch."

"But what about what they said on the internet? And what Aaron told us about that guy that worked here getting bit?"

"Have you actually seen any of that? What if that's not what happened? Or, what if those people got bit so badly they died and that's why they came back? You're not bit all that bad. I'm sure you're gonna be fine," Danny said, trying not to let his fear show in his voice. Andy was the last of his family. The two had been best friends all their lives. What would he do without his little brother?

Andy looked into Danny's eyes. His big brother had been right about things all their lives. He'd always taken care of Andy during the worst times. He had to be right about this too.

"Okay," Andy said, wiping his face on his sleeve, "now what do we do?"

"Now, I say we get some rest. I figure Aaron'll have some plan for us to kick some ass in the morning," Danny answered.

"I wish you would have been down there with us. I bet everything would have turned out better," Andy said.

Danny chuckled and said, "Well, that's what I get for being able to get time off from work during boar season. You'd be good with a bow too if you had to try and hunt those little bastards."

The two headed out of the bathroom and towards the store room. Andy stopped near the door and asked, "Danny, is it okay if we stay down here tonight? I really don't want to try and sleep up there with all of those… things out there."

"Good idea, little bro," Danny said, throwing his arm around Andy's shoulder and heading them towards camping. "This'll all be better in the morning."

The next morning, Lisa woke to the wonderful smell of cooking eggs and bacon. She lay there smiling. Terry must have gotten off work early and come home and made breakfast.

Then, it hit her. Terry had left her over two months ago. And the world had ended. And she was trapped in a fucking Del Taco of all places.

Sitting up, her smile now a distant memory, she groaned and rubbed her lower back. Sleeping on floors wasn't as easy as it had been when she was a kid.

Standing up, she headed out of the manager's office and into the kitchen area. She found Aaron making breakfast. She stood watching him for a moment. Every move he made was so sure and precise, leading from one movement to the next. Such a change from the man who had been so lost last night after he killed that crazy guy.

Aaron caught her watching him and said, "Morning."

"Morning," she replied. "How is it outside?"

Aaron sighed, set down the spatula and met Lisa's eyes. She could already see it. This was going to be bad.

"There are probably between two and three hundred zombies out there now," he said quietly. "Without some sort of miracle, there is no way we're getting back over to Big 5."

Danny shook Andy's shoulder and said, "Wake up."

Andy groaned and pushed Danny's hand away. "Just five more minutes?" He mumbled into his pillow.

Danny grinned from ear to ear. Andy had been bitten over twelve hours ago and, other than looking a little pale; he was acting like the same old lazy Andy that Danny had grown up with.

"Nope, time to get up and take some meds. I don't want you getting sick on me," Danny said.

Andy rolled over and glared at Danny. After everything that happened last night, why couldn't he just have five more minutes to sleep? He deserved it, didn't he?

Finally, he gave in and sat up. When Danny got a bug up his butt, Andy knew better than to fight it. Looking at the floor next to his sleeping bag, he saw the assortment of things Danny had waiting for him.

"Do I have to take all of that?" He whined.

"Yes, you do. How do you think these people would react to someone getting sick right now? Especially someone that… well, you know. Your hand," Danny said.

His words made Andy's blood run cold. "I thought you said I wasn't gonna become a zo…"

Danny slapped his hand over Andy's mouth and looked around. Nobody seemed to be paying any attention to them.

"Don't say stuff like that!" He hissed at his brother. "And you _are_ gonna be fine. You just need to play it safe. Got it?"

Andy nodded nervously. Danny pulled his hand away from Andy's mouth and reached down and shook a couple of aspirin from their bottle. He opened a bottle of water and handed the aspirin and water to Andy. Andy took the aspirin. He followed those with a pair of multi-vitamins. That was followed by a thousand milligram Vitamin C pill. Finally, he drank a capful of Dayquil.

Gagging at the horrid taste of the Dayquil, he chugged down the rest of the water. Danny nodded approvingly at his brother and scooped up everything except for the Dayquil.

"I want you taking that every six hours. Got it?" He asked.

Andy nodded, resigning himself to days of his brother treating him like a baby.

"Good boy," Danny said. "Now get some more rest."

"Coulda just let me rest in the first place," Danny muttered, flopping back down on his pillow.

One the roof, Paul sat in a lawn chair, staring up at the sky and listening to the mass of zombies below him. He had sent the spotters back down into the store. He could watch for vehicles and keep an eye on Del Taco by himself. His eyes drifted over to the spot on the retaining wall where Tim and Barry had gone over.

Jennie had told him, after things had calmed down last night, that she had seen Tim let go of the rope right before they went over.

"It's just like him. He never was one for real work," she had said.

Paul hadn't believed her at first, but Jo's dad had confirmed it.

"He didn't say anything," Javier Alvarez said. "He just let go. Barry must have slipped under the weight he was holding and fallen forward. And then…"

Javier hadn't been able to finish what he was saying. He had just shaken his head sadly and gone back down into the store to his family.

Now Paul sat alone on the roof, wallowing in his misery. He had been in charge last night. Tim and Barry died on his watch. He just wished he done something more. All night and all morning he kept wondering what he could have done better. Should he have put more people on that rope? Should he have joined in himself? He just wished he'd either gone with Aaron or Aaron had stayed here last night. Aaron would have known what to do. Everyone would probably still be alive if Aaron had been in charge.

Now Aaron was trapped in Del Taco. Between losing two of their own, losing two of the Del taco survivors and having Aaron trapped away from Big 5, everyone's morale was at an all time low and Paul had no idea what to do.

Footsteps crunched across the roof towards him but Paul didn't need to look to know who it was going to be. She'd already been up here five times this morning with the same question.

"So? Any ideas yet?" Jo asked.

Paul sighed and looked at her. "No, Jo, I still haven't come up with anything yet."

"Well, we need to do _something_, Paul. Sitting around on the roof isn't going to get him back, you know?" She snapped.

"Jo, he's still alive and safe. As long as they keep away from the windows they'll be fine. They have plenty of food and water. Besides, Aaron wouldn't want us to rush into a dumb plan, would he? He'd want to make sure we could pull it off and not have anyone else get hurt, right? So, let's take our time and get it right the first time, okay?" He asked.

Jo stood, grinding her teeth. He was right. Aaron would want them to do it right. She knew that. But she wanted him back so bad. She just felt so much safer with him around. Knowing she wouldn't see him as they went about their day made her heart ache.

Shoulders slumped in defeat, Jo said, "You're right, Paul. I just wish he was here, you know? I just wish we could _do_ something."

"I know exactly how you feel," Paul said. "Why don't you go back downstairs and take a look around? You know this place better than the rest of us. Maybe you could find something to use as a diversion."

She nodded and headed back towards the roof hatch, leaving Paul alone. He tried to think of a plan to get Aaron back, but his mind kept turning back to last night, to the sounds of Tim and Barry screaming as they fell. To the sounds of their screams as the zombies attacked them. And, worst of all, to the sounds of the zombies chewing as they ate the men alive.

By mid-afternoon, Paul still had no plan. Jo had left him alone since her last visit, which he was very thankful for. He didn't know how much longer he could take her badgering. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of tires screeching.

Paul leapt to his feet and rushed towards the street side of the roof. Looking down past Del Taco, he could see a truck had just come around the curve in the road and skidded to a stop. The driver must have spotted the zombies in the road and known he couldn't get past.

Spinning the truck around, the driver took off down a side street. Paul couldn't hear the tires screeching as the truck took off because of the roar of the zombies as they howled and gave chase to the truck.

Not believing their luck, Paul ran back over and grabbed his radio. Slapping the headset back on he changed the radio to channel 2 and yelled, "Weapons on the roof! Now!"

Changing it back to channel 3, he said, "Aaron, get ready to move out."

"_What's going on_?" Aaron asked.

"No time to answer, just be ready," Paul said.

Grabbing the shotgun from beside his chair, Paul ran over and looked down towards the Big 5 store room door. There were still a bunch of zombies there, pounding on the door. That was okay, they still had Plan B.

As the Big 5 group poured out onto the roof, Paul said, "When I give the word, Aaron and that chick are gonna come running. We're going to take out any zombies left in the parking lot. When they get close, Mrs. Alvarez, throw the ropes over the side. When they clip them on, everyone, and I mean _everyone_, drop what you're doing and pull those fucking ropes. Got it?"

"What happened? Where are all the zombies going?" Danny asked.

"We got our diversion, baby. Now let's make good on it," Paul said.

The group crouched near the retaining wall, watching as the zombies filtered out of the parking lot. After a few minutes there were only a dozen left and Paul figured that was as good as it was going to get.

"Get ready," he said to the group.

Into the radio he yelled, "Aaron, _go!_"

Aaron shoved open the door and took off out of Del taco, Lisa right on his heels. A zombie near the back door, started to turn but Aaron caved in its skull with a swing from the pipe he had found.

From the roof of Big 5 a thunderous volley of gunfire opened up on the zombies below. Round after round, the zombies in the parking lot were torn to pieces. Many of them were killed but some, with arms, legs and bodies shredded by buckshot and bullets, struggled after Aaron and Lisa.

The pair were almost to Big 5 when a wave of zombies came tearing out of the alley Aaron's team had rappelled down into last night. Aaron stepped to the side and Lisa opened fire with his Glock. He had told her only headshots would kill them, still saying they were zombies.

Her first two shots took the lead crazy in his chest. He staggered but kept coming. Lifting her aim, her next shot took him in the head and he dropped, tripping a couple of the ones running behind him.

The crew on Big 5's roof shifted their aim and opened fire on the zombies coming from the alley. More zombies fell but others took their place. The downpour of gunfire from the roof became a trickle of single shots here and there. Aaron glanced up at the roof and saw most of the people were busy trying to reload.

Lisa fired again and again, taking down three more crazies before the guns' slide locked back, her magazine empty. Ejecting the magazine, she shoved her hand into her pocket for a fresh one.

Two zombies were closing fast and Aaron knew they would get to them before Lisa could reload. One was headed for her but the closer was coming right for him. Aaron juked left and then sidestepped right, kicking his leg out in front of the zombie. It fell for his feint and, instead of hitting him head on, it tripped over his leg. It slammed into the ground face first, smashing its nose and shattering its front teeth.

Ignoring it for the moment, Aaron took two quick steps forward and swung his pipe at the zombie coming for Lisa. It had been so intent on her, the zombie never saw Aaron. The tip of his pipe hit her forehead, splitting her skull open. Blood, bone and brain matter rained down on the asphalt but Aaron was already turning back to the first zombie.

He never even got a chance to raise his pipe. Lisa, her gun reloaded, shot the zombie in the face, ending its threat.

Aaron flicked his gaze towards Big 5. More zombies were coming around from the front. Hadn't Paul checked on their numbers or tried a diversion on them?

He glanced up at the people on the roof. People were scrambling. He heard Danny yell something about more ammo. That was when he knew he and Lisa were not going to make it.

Turning to her, he yelled, "Back to Del Taco!"

Giving Big 5 one last, longing look, Lisa turned and ran back towards Del Taco. Dammit! They had been so close.

From the front of Del Taco, more of the crazy fuckers came. It was going to be close, but Lisa was sure they were going to make it.

They were within ten feet of the door when a horrifying sight made Lisa skid to stop, her eyes wide in terror.

A man stumbled around the corner from the other side of Del Taco. His face was shredded, his lower jaw missing entirely. His left arm was torn off just below the elbow. But that was not the worst. The worst was his stomach. It was torn open and intestine hung down at his feet. As he ran, his feet kept stepping on the length of intestine, pulling a little more out with each step.

Aaron saw Lisa stop. He saw the horror coming at them. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the wave of zombies coming at them. He processed everything in a split second and knew what he had to do.

Dropping the pipe, he wrapped his arms around Lisa's waist and lifted her into the air. He took two running steps before he kicked the mutilated zombie in the chest, knocking it out of his way.

He wanted to stay and kick it over and over, again and again. Shatter its skull with his boots. Stomp it to its final death.

Last night, when he killed the zombie with his multi-tool, it had been so horrifyingly personal. Now it was much more personal to Aaron. He wanted revenge. Those fucking monsters had killed two of his own and two he had tried to help. He was going to make them pay for what they had done.

Running through the door, Aaron dropped Lisa and spun around to the door. He grabbed the handle and managed to yank it closed as the zombies came tearing around the corner.

Aaron listened to them beat their fists futilely against the door, while he tried to catch his breath. Behind him, Lisa whispered, "They really are… They really are zombies."

"No fucking shit, Captain Obvious. What would you like to let the world know next? The sky is blue? Water is wet?" Aaron snapped.

Drowning in the reality of zombies being real, Lisa didn't hear him. It was too much for her mind to deal with. She just lay where Aaron had dropped her, staring at the floor, mumbling, "They're really zombies."

"Motherfucker!" Paul screamed, kicking his lawn chair across the roof. Spinning around, he stormed to the edge of the roof and fired down on the zombies. When his shotgun clicked empty, he threw it across the roof.

"Cock-sucking pieces of shit!" He screamed.

"Paul!" Larry yelled.

Paul spun towards Larry, his face bright red, his eyes burning with rage.

"That fucking close, Larry! That close! They were here! Where the fuck did those goddamn things come from?" He ranted.

"Paul, you need to calm down, man," Danny said.

"Fuck that!" Paul continued. "They would have been here if we'd been ready. Danny, go downstairs, get your lazy ass brother up and get as much ammo as you can carry up here. Now! The rest of you, get down there and load up some more guns. I don't want to waste fucking time reloading next time. We'll just drop the empty and grab a fresh rifle. Move, people!"

Everyone scattered, most of them very glad to get away from Paul. Paul continued to storm across the roof. The pity and misery he had felt earlier had been burned away in an adrenalin fueled rage. He wasn't going to fail Aaron. Not again. Next time, they were going to make it.


	11. Escape

Aaron walked over to Lisa's prone form and pulled his pistol out of her hand. She might have lost her mind but at least she'd managed to not lose the pistol.

He ejected the clip and counted only three bullets left in it. Slapping it back in the pistol, Aaron shook his head. They only had one spare clip left. If they didn't manage to get back to Big 5 on their next try, they were screwed.

Aaron made his way up to the front of Del Taco to check on the situation outside. As he approached the front, a zombie walked up to the counter. Aaron and the zombie stared at each other for a moment, before the zombie growled and started to climb over the counter. Aaron brought the Glock up and put a bullet through the zombie's head.

How the hell had it gotten in? They had checked the place; there had not been any inside. Unless… His heart hammering Aaron ran to the front of the store.

The sharp crack of a gunshot snapped Paul's head around. He ran to the side of the roof and looked out at Del Taco. He saw that the zombies had heard the shot as well and many were wandering around, looking for the source. He saw a small group making their way to the doors and that's when his heart froze.

The floor to ceiling window next to the door was shattered, leaving the zombies a wide open entryway into Del Taco.

Snapping on the hands-free mode on his radio, he yelled, "Aaron! Get out of there! Now!"

The sound of the gunshot dragged Lisa out of the pit of despair she had been sinking into. As the echoes faded, she stood and made her way to the front of Del Taco to find Aaron.

She found him with his headset pulled away from his ear, Paul's voice screaming out of the earpiece.

Seeing her, Aaron stepped close and whispered into her ear, "Front window's busted. It must have gotten shot out when we tried to escape. Zombies are gonna get in here and the back door still has a bunch beating on it. We're going out through the drive-thru window."

She nodded and the two headed over to the drive-thru window. Aaron peered out for a second. There were some zombies in the parking lot next door at Pizza Hut and in the street, but they were going to have to chance it.

He started to slide the window open, when Lisa stopped him.

"Where are we going to go?"

"Over the back wall into River Bluffs or into Pizza Hut. Whichever we can get to," he answered.

Aaron slid the window open and helped Lisa through it. Aaron handed the pistol through the window to her. Lisa took the Glock and looked around. None of the zombies were paying her any attention. In fact, the ones in the street were rushing past towards Big 5. Over the hammering of her heart, she could hear someone yelling.

"Come here, you ugly fucks! Free lunch buffet! All you can eat!"

On the roof of Big 5, Paul screamed and jumped up and down, trying to get the zombies attention. If he could draw the more curious ones away from the broken window, Aaron and the girl might have enough time to get away.

But even screaming and yelling wasn't going to be enough. As he watched, several zombies found the broken window and entered Del Taco.

The sound of snarls and running feet behind him made Aaron grab the drive-thru window and yank himself through. For an instant, something clawed at his foot and then he was free. He fell four feet to the ground, crashing down on his left side, right on top of his radio. He heard the plastic crunch under his weight and then Paul's voice was gone from his ear.

As Aaron got to his feet, Lisa watched the zombies in the Pizza Hut parking lot. One of them must have heard Aaron's landing. It turned and, seeing Lisa and Aaron, snarled and rushed them.

Lisa took aim and fired. Her first shot missed but her second took the runner in his head. The slide on the Glock locked open and Lisa yanked out their last clip.

Zombies came around the corner of Del Taco to investigate the gunshot while others in the street and parking lot turned and rushed Aaron and Lisa. Grabbing Lisa's arm, Aaron yanked her towards Pizza Hut.

"Take out the ones in front of us!" He yelled.

Lisa managed to take down a couple more while Aaron sprinted ahead of her. He threw his shoulder into one elderly zombie, sending her flying out of his way. He reached the doors to Pizza Hut and, with a silent prayer, pulled on the door.

To his relief, the door swung open.

Lisa rushed in past him. Aaron dove through the door and yanked it closed as the zombie horde slammed into it. The door groaned under the impact and rattled in its frame. But it held.

Aaron and Lisa went through the second set of doors, out of the foyer and into Pizza Hut itself. The pair looked around and were surprised to find two young men, staring wide eyed in terror, standing in the kitchen area.

Behind them, the glass in the front doors started to crack under the zombie's assault.

"That's not gonna last long," Lisa said.

"No shit," Aaron responded.

Walking towards the terrified pair in the kitchen, Aaron asked, "Do either of you have a car?"

The two stood wide-eyed, their eyes twitching from Aaron to Lisa to the doors into the foyer. The sound of glass shattering made everyone jump. The front doors had shattered and now zombies poured into the foyer and began to bang on the second set of glass doors.

"Hey!" Aaron yelled at the pair in the kitchen. "Do either of you have a fucking car? We need to get the fuck out of here. Now!"

One of the two slowly raised his hand. Gulping, he said, "My car's out front."

Aaron gave a sharp nod. Perfect. Pizza Hut had two parking lots. The east one, that Aaron and Lisa had run through, was for customers coming in to eat. There was a second, smaller parking lot on the south side of the restaurant for people coming into pick up their pizzas and for the delivery drivers.

"Then let's go!" Aaron said.

As if to punctuate his point, the glass on the inside doors cracked under the weight of the zombie mob pressing in on it. The two men came out of the kitchen and ran for the south side entrance, Lisa and Aaron right behind them.

The four ran out of the south entrance and towards an older Ford Tempo. Lisa took a quick look around for targets. There were some zombies in the street but none that would get to them before they got to the car.

Pete Nelson ran to his Tempo and tried to get the key in the lock. He missed on his first two tries but managed to get the key in on the third. He threw the door open and hit the unlock button on his door. The other three door locks popped open, letting Tim Jackson and the other two people into his car.

Everyone slammed their doors and shoved the locks down. Pete started the car and backed out of the parking place. He started forward when a zombie leapt onto his hood. Pete hit the brakes and the zombie smacked its face on his windshield.

Pete froze for a second before Aaron yelled, "Go!"

Pete stomped on the gas and the Tempo shot forward. The zombie grabbed at the windshield wipers but couldn't get a hold. It slipped off the side of the car. Pete spun the wheel and, seeing the mass of zombies down by Del Taco and Big 5, took off west down Long Avenue.

Pete slalomed down the road, trying his best to avoid the zombies charging the car. He clipped a couple and the wheel tried to jerk out of his hand but he managed to stay in control of the car.

"Get off of Long. There's too damn many of them," Aaron said from the back seat.

Rather than follow Long where it curved south, Pete took the Tempo west down Baseline. Knuckles white from his grip on the steering wheel, Pete sped the Tempo down Baseline, shooting through a four way stop, trying to put as much distance between himself and the mass of zombies behind them.

"Buddy, you might want to slow down a little. God knows what's up ahead of us," Aaron said.

Pete ignored him. The car rocketed down Baseline, narrowly avoiding a pair of zombies that had run out into the road.

"Pete! Dude, you need to slow down, man!" Tim yelled, reaching over and putting his hand on Pete's shoulder.

Pete snapped his head around. The wild look in his eyes made Tim yank his hand back.

"Look out!" Lisa screamed from the back seat.

Ahead of them, a zombie stood in the middle of the road, watching the car race right at her. Pete hit the brakes and spun the wheel to try to avoid her but it was too late.

She hit the front of the Tempo, the hood crumpling from her impact. She slid up the hood and smashed her face into the windshield. Safety glass exploded into the car, raining down on Tim, tearing at his face.

The zombie bounced off of the roof as the car skidded wildly off of the road. The Tempo slammed into the back of a Chevy Suburban parked on the side of the road. The impact threw Tim forward into the windshield. He smashed through the already damaged windshield and flew into the back of the Suburban. He crashed into the Suburban's tailgate head first. Fragments of his shattered skull were driven deep into his brain, killing him instantly.

Pete was thrown forward, only to be smashed back by his airbag. He felt a tearing sensation in his neck as his head slammed back into the headrest. As the airbag deflated, he lay in the driver's seat, unable to move.

Aaron and Lisa had both slammed into the seats in front of them and then bounced back into the back seat when the car came to a stop. Aaron pulled himself back into a sitting position. He slowly turned his neck right and left. It didn't feel like there was any damage but it could just be the adrenaline. He knew he'd be in agony tomorrow.

If there was a tomorrow.

He looked out the back window. Down the street, he could see zombies making their way towards the wreck.


	12. After The Crash

"Come on, Lisa. We gotta get out of here," Aaron said, opening the door of the Tempo.

Aaron got out and Lisa crawled out of the car after him. She looked towards the front of the car and saw the crumpled in front end, with Tim's broken body lying across it.

Aaron saw him too. He went forward and put his fingers to Tim's neck. He looked back at Lisa and gave a small shake of his head. She felt a little sad, but that was it. She knew she should feel something more, what had once been a living breathing human being was now lying dead less then five feet away from her. Was she becoming numb to all of this death around here already? Was this what living was going to turn into? A series of deaths that made her a little sad, but then she got on with her day right afterwards.

She stared at Tim's body while Aaron opened the driver's door. He grabbed Pete and said, "Time to go, buddy."

He started to pull Pete free but Pete screamed, making Aaron yank his hand back.

"I can't move!" Pete said as tears ran down his face. "It hurts so bad!"

"Where does it hurt?" Aaron asked.

"My neck," Pete answered. "Any time I try to move my head it feels like someone's stabbing me."

Aaron looked around and took stock of the situation. The zombies were three blocks away. They'd be at the car in seconds. Pete had a neck injury and they didn't have time to immobilize his neck. If they tried to move him fast, the damage already done to his neck would only get worse. Even if they found a place to hide, Pete might try to move and cry out, giving their position away.

Aaron saw only one way to fix the situation.

"Lisa, give me the gun," he said quietly.

Lisa looked down at the gun in her hand. She hadn't even realized she'd still had it. She handed it to Aaron.

"Start towards the back of the house," he said, pointing to the back of the house they had crashed in front of. "We'll try and ditch them going through these people's back yard."

Lisa looked at Pete and then back to Aaron. He wouldn't meet her eyes. That's when she knew what he was planning. Could she let him do it? Could she just turn her back and let him commit murder?

The sound of growling, running zombies cut through her indecision. Tears filling her eyes, she turned and ran.

"What about me?" Pete asked, oblivious to what was going on around him.

Aaron met his eyes and said, "I'm sorry."

Lifting the gun, Aaron pointed it at Pete's head and pulled the trigger.

As the echoes of the gunshot faded, Aaron released a shaky breath. He looked from Pete to Tim. If they hadn't gone into Pizza Hut these two would still be alive. Everything he touched turned to death. Paul had told him about wanting to just give up and have this nightmare finally be over. Aaron understood his feelings perfectly.

"Aaron! Come on!" Lisa shouted.

But right now, giving up was not an option. He still had to get Lisa to safety. Whatever safety meant any more.

Aaron turned and ran after Lisa. Turning his back on the death and destruction he had caused.


	13. On The Run

Lisa had made it up the driveway and opened the back gate when she heard the gunshot. She stopped just inside the gate and, unable to stop herself, she looked behind her. Aaron was running up the driveway at her and behind him she could see Pete's body slumped over in the Tempo. The sight of his body was blocked as a pair of zombies charged up the driveway.

Aaron saw Lisa's eyes go wide right before she turned and bolted into the backyard. He knew what that meant and he ran as fast as he could after her.

Lisa ran through the weed strewn yard to the back fence. The fence was only three feet tall, allowing Lisa to grab the top and easily swing her legs over into the next yard.

Aaron watched Lisa go over the fence and into the next yard. Once over she stopped and turned to look back at him.

"Keep going!" He yelled.

Aaron ran full speed at the fence, diving over the top of it. He crashed down into the rocky yard, narrowly avoiding a large cactus. Glancing behind him, he saw the zombies slam into the fence. They bounced back and then grabbed the top of the fence, preparing to jump over.

Aaron leapt to his feet and ran after Lisa. She was waiting at the front of the house, peering around the corner at something in the street.

"Goddammit keep going!" He snapped at her.

The two ran down the driveway and out into the street. Aaron looked to his left to see what Lisa had been looking at. Six zombies had been making their way down the street away from the pair. Hearing Aaron's shout, the six turned and chased after Aaron and Lisa.

Lisa ran towards the side of the house ahead of them. She threw open the five foot tall side gate and, once Aaron was past, shoved the gate closed. The latch had just dropped into place when the zombies hit the gate. It rattled and shook, but held.

Lisa stood watching the snarling monsters slap at the gate and try to reach through for her. Aaron grabbed her hand and drug her deeper into the yard, saying, "That's not gonna hold them forever. We need to keep moving."

The two made their way to the backyard and a six foot cinder block back wall. Aaron helped boost Lisa over. Once she was over, he grabbed the top of the wall and pulled himself up. He got his chest to the top of the wall when one of the zombies accidentally slapped the latch on the gate up.

Hearing the mob fast approaching, Aaron pulled himself to the top of the wall. He tried to roll off the other side of the wall but hands grabbed his leg, trying to drag him back. He clung desperately to the other side of the wall. Lisa grabbed his arm and, bracing her feet against the wall, she managed to pull him out of the zombie's grasp, sending the pair crashing to the ground.

Aaron groaned and pulled himself to his feet.

"We've got to keep going," he said.

Lisa drug herself to her feet and ran after Aaron. She didn't know how much longer she was going to be able to keep up this pace. If only they could just find a place to rest for a few minutes so she could catch her breath.

Aaron went down the side of the house and to the large gate. He peeked out through the gate but didn't see any movement. Opening it, he slipped out and slowly made his way down to the street. Looking both ways, he didn't see any zombies.

He and Lisa made their way across the street and into the next yard. They climbed over another three foot fence and into another backyard.

A slapping sound froze them in their tracks. The pair turned to the sliding glass door facing the backyard. The remains of a little girl clawed at the glass, trying to reach them.

Every detail of the little girl burned itself into Aaron's mind. She was wearing a little sundress that was covered in blood. Her left arm ended in a stump just below the elbow. Her eyes burned with hunger as she stared out at him. She looked like Katie. "We've got to go before she gets out or draws attention," Lisa whispered, grabbing Aaron's hand and pulling him after her.

Swallowing the bile in his throat and the tears burning at the corners of his eyes, Aaron looked away from the girl and followed Lisa.

The pair made it safely across the next street and into another backyard. This yard had a block wall like the one where they had lost the zombies. Aaron and Lisa went over it and into the backyard of yet another house. The block wall ran down both sides of the yard they found themselves in.

"We need a break," Aaron whispered. "We'll check and make sure the gates are closed and then we'll try the back door."

Aaron and Lisa split up and checked the east and west sides of the house. On Aaron's side, the block wall made a turn and came to an end, butting up against the house. Lisa's side had a large gate that, to her relief, was firmly closed. She made her way back and joined Aaron at the back door.

"Wall butts up against the house on my side," Aaron told her.

"There's a gate on my side," Lisa said. "It closed but it's made of wood. I don't think the latch on it would last long if we get a bunch of them hitting it."

"Then we'll just have to be quiet," he said.

Aaron pulled out his Glock and ejected the magazine. They were down to four rounds. Aaron wanted to keep the last two rounds, just in case. He had no intention of letting those things eat him alive.

Slapping the magazine back into the Glock, He reached out and grabbed the door knob. He twisted it and, to his surprise, it opened. Pushing the door open, he looked around the kitchen. There were some dirty dishes on the sink and it smelled like someone really needed to take out the trash but he didn't see any blood or signs of struggle. He made his way into the house. Lisa stepped in after him, closing and locking the door behind them.

The pair checked the house but did not find any threats. Lisa looked at the pictures of the husband, wife and son decorating the walls of the hallway to the bedrooms. Were they alive somewhere? Or were they out there somewhere, hunting for the living?

Aaron searched the son's bedroom. He opened the closet and rooted around but did not find what he was looking for. Lisa came to the door and watched him for a moment before asking, "What are you doing?"

"The kid's got a baseball jersey on top of his hamper. He's gotta have a baseball bat around here somewhere," Aaron said, looking around the room. His eyes stopped on the bed.

Getting down on his hands and knees he looked under the bed. With a grin, he reached under the bed and pulled out an aluminum baseball bat. Perfect, he thought.

"We need to check the parent's bedroom too," he said. "Maybe they had a gun."

They made their way into the master bedroom of the house. Aaron went to the nightstands while Lisa checked the dresser. They checked the bedroom, the closet and the connecting bathroom but didn't find a gun.

Their search complete, they made their way back into the kitchen. Aaron pulled a jug of water out of the fridge. He rooted through the cupboards and found glasses for both of them. He poured the water into the glasses and put the water back in the fridge. When he turned around, he found Lisa watching him with an odd look on her face.

"What?" He asked.

"Don't you feel weird?" She asked back.

"Why?"

"Well, we break into these people's house. We take their kid's baseball bat. We tear through their stuff looking for a gun and now we're in their kitchen drinking their water out of their glasses."

"Yeah, it is a little weird," he agreed. "But we have to do what it takes to stay alive. Right now it's survival of the fittest and the living aren't looking too fit."

"We agree on that. So what the plan now?" She asked.

"We'll hole up here for tonight. I'm too damn sore to even think about going back out there. We'll see how things look tomorrow and go from there," he answered.

"I just wish we would have found a car in the garage. We could have headed over to Big 5 right now."

Aaron's head snapped up. He hadn't even thought about Big 5. He scanned the kitchen but didn't find what he was looking for. He ran out into the living room, Lisa following him, asking him, "What is it?"

He answered her by picking the phone up out of its charger. Dialing Big 5's number he waited. On the second ring, Jo picked up.

"Umm… Big 5, this is Jo," she said.

"Jo, it's Aaron," he said.

"Oh my God, thank God, I was so worried," she said.

Aaron could hear people behind her asking who it was. "It's Aaron and he's alive, now shush. And someone go get Paul."

"Aaron, where the hell are you? We saw the car take off from Pizza Hut. We figured you would have made you're way back by now," she said into the phone.

"We got into an accident," he said.

"Oh my God, are you alright?"

"Yeah," he said. "Lisa and I made it but the two guys from Pizza Hut…didn't," he said, an image of Pete's head snapping back when the bullet hit him running through his mind.

"Aaron, I'm so sorry," Jo said.

"Me too," he said quietly. "Jo, where's Paul?"

"He's here, hang on a sec."

The phone went quiet for a moment and then Paul said, "Damn dude, I am _so_ glad to hear from you. Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Aaron said, "for now. We're going to hole up here for the night and then try to get back there tomorrow."

"It's still pretty early, we have the rest of the afternoon for you to get back," Paul said. "In fact, we've been working on a diversion to get the zombies away from the store room so we can get out to the trucks. If it works, we could just come get you and head back."

"No," Aaron said, firmly. "Don't take any chances risking more people to rescue us. We'll find a way back to you. There's been too many deaths already."

Both men were silent for a moment, each thinking about the deaths they felt responsible for.

"Okay, but no matter what, you're getting your ass back here tomorrow, right?" Paul asked.

"I'll try," Aaron said. "We'll call back and check in after awhile. Keep them safe, Paul."

"You worry about you and the girl. I'll take care of things on this end. I promise," Paul said.

After finding out what was going on from Paul, Danny made his way back over to the tent he had put Andy in. He unzipped the tent and ducked inside. Andy lay in his sleeping bag, shivering uncontrollably as sweat ran down his face. In the last hour, ugly bruises had formed under both of his eyes.

Danny was terrified. He didn't know what to do for his brother. He'd put up the tent and gotten Andy into it earlier this afternoon, afraid if anyone saw him they'd figure out that he'd been bitten. Now all he could do was try to make Andy comfortable and hope all of the meds he was making him take did something.

"Danny, is… is that you?" Andy asked through chattering teeth.

"Yeah, little bro, it's me," he answered.

"What… what was all the noise about?"

"Aaron called in. He and that girl got somewhere safe. They're gonna try and get back here tomorrow," Danny answered.

"Oh," Andy said before a coughing fit tore at him. He slapped his hands over his mouth and tried to cover the noise like Danny had told him. After a minute, the coughing faded away, leaving Andy feeling weaker then ever.

Danny sat next to his brother looking at Andy's hands. Spots of blood covered his hands.

* * *

Author's Note: Thank you all for your reviews and emails. They are greatly appreciated. And, Imogen262, it's not the length of the chapter that's important. It's the quality. And you may have short chapters, but they are _very good_ short chapters. 


	14. Night of Death

Jimmy fought it as long as he could but in the end he had to give up. He was going to have to get out of his sleeping bag and take a leak. Cracking his eyes open, he hit the light button on his watch.

3:17 a.m.

He pressed his face into his pillow and groaned. He should have known it was way too early. The main lights were still off and only the two emergency lights cut into the darkness around him. He knew he was going to have to get up and take a leak. He knew once he was up there was no way he was going to get back to sleep.

"Shit," he mumbled into the pillow.

He snapped his head around to see if his mother, who was sleeping in her sleeping bag next to him, had heard him. The sight that greeted him was not his mother, giving him that look she had any time he cursed. Instead, he found someone leaning over his mother.

Throwing off his sleeping bag, Jimmy stood and looked down in horror at the sight before him. In the dim light, he could see his mother's eyes, staring up at the ceiling. He could see her throat, torn open, and a pool of blood covering her pillow. The monster leaning over her had ripped open her shirt and he could see chunks of flesh missing from where it had bitten her.

"Mom!" He screamed, grabbing the monster by its head and shoving it away from her.

The monster rolled over and, snarling, swung its head around to meet Jimmy's eyes. Jimmy stared at Andy's face. His mother's blood covered Andy's jaw and he looked like he was still chewing on a piece of her flesh.

With a howl of rage, Andy threw himself at Jimmy. Jimmy backpedaled away from the monster that Andy had become. Andy grabbed at Jimmy but missed and tripped himself on Jimmy's mother's legs.

Andy crashed to the ground as Jimmy spun and ran for the front of the store. Dimly, he could hear people shouting behind him but the sound of Andy's growls and feet slapping against the floor as he gave chase drowned everything else out.

Jimmy sprinted to the registers at the front of the store. Running behind them, he reached into the drawer next to the left register. He pulled the .357 out of the drawer and flicked off the safety.

Paul and Aaron had put a few guns in places all around the store just in case the zombies managed to get in. Jimmy had paid very close attention, hoping Paul and Aaron would notice.

Andy threw himself over the register at him. Jimmy jumped back as Andy and the register came crashing to the floor at his feet. Jimmy swung the .357 down and fired. His first shot tore into the floor, just missing Andy's head.

His next shot hit Andy in the shoulder, shattering the bones in his left shoulder and slamming him back to the floor.Jimmy's next two shots his Andy in the head, killing him.

Jimmy didn't stop. He fired the last two shots into Andy's back. He kept pulling the trigger as tears poured down his face. Realizing he was out of bullets, he turned the pistol around, dropped to his knees and began beating Andy's corpse with the gun.

Wailing in agony, he pounded the gun into the remains of Andy's head. His tears mixed with Andy's blood as he brought the gun up and down, again and again.

He didn't know how long it was until a pair of hands grabbed him and dragged him away from Andy. He struggled against the person holding him. He wanted to destroy Andy's body. He wanted to tear it apart piece by piece.

"Jimmy! Stop! He's dead," Jo yelled.

Jimmy hurled the .357 at Andy's body. He yanked free of Jo and turned to face her.

"Did you see what he did to my mother?" He screamed.

Tears running down her face, Jo reached out for Jimmy and said, "I'm so sorry, Jimmy."

The rage that had been burning inside him suddenly seemed to flicker and die, leaving him feeling empty inside. He collapsed into Jo's arms, and let her hold him as he cried.

Paul and Danny burst through the store room doors, their guns up and ready.

"What the fuck is going on?" Paul shouted.

Someone turned on the main overhead light and Paul and Danny got their first sight of Jimmy's mother.

"Oh my God," Paul whispered.

"One of those things got in here," John Carter yelled, stomping over to Paul and Danny. "Some protection you're offering."

"It didn't get in," Jo yelled from the front of store. "It was Andy."

"Andy?" Danny asked, rushing over to the tent that Andy had been in. The tent was wide open and Andy was missing.

"No," Danny whispered.

"How could it have been Andy? He wasn't…" Paul trailed off. It hit him. All the time Danny had spent nursing his brother; keeping him away from everyone. He'd gotten bit and Danny had kept it from everyone.

"Motherfucker," Paul hissed, starting towards Danny. He was going to kill him. Because of the stupid son of a bitch Jimmy's mom was dead and any of the rest of them could have been as well.

Screams from behind him stopped him right before he got to Danny. Spinning around he saw Jimmy's mother sitting upright. Her eyes opened and she took in her surroundings.

"Mom?" Jimmy asked.

She looked towards her son and her lips pulled back from her teeth. Eyes locked on her prey, she started to get up, never feeling the touch of a shotgun's barrel on the side of her head.

Paul pulled the trigger and her head exploded, splattering blood and brain matter across the aisle.

Jimmy screamed. The raw agony in his voice tore at Paul. He didn't have time to tell the kid to look away or for Jo to turn him away. He had to stop her right then or put everyone at risk. That didn't stop Jimmy's screams or the knife that felt like it was stabbing Paul in the heart.

Not daring to look at Jimmy, Paul walked over to Larry and asked, "Who was supposed to be on watch in here?"

"It was the rich guys turn," Larry said.

Paul turned and walked over to where John was standing with his new friend Gloria, a very worried Larry right behind him.

"You were supposed to be on watch. How did you miss Andy attacking Jimmy's mom?" Paul asked

"I must have drifted off. I'm not a young man and I am not used to this late night nonsense you are putting me through. You really should have been better prepared for something like this," John snapped.

"You really don't want to be around me right now. Go somewhere where I can't see you," Paul said.

Normally, John would never have taken that kind of tone from anyone. But the look in Paul's eyes made him keep his mouth shut. Taking Gloria's hand, the two quickly made their way into the store room.

"Danny, go back up on the roof and stand watch," Paul said over his shoulder.

Danny walked over to Paul and said, "Paul, I didn't know he was gonna…"

"Did I say talk to me?" Paul asked, cutting Danny off and letting the barrel of his shotgun drift towards Danny's face.

Danny stared down the barrel of the gun for a moment, before quickly making his way towards the roof hatch.

Jimmy's screaming had finally stopped but Paul still couldn't bring himself to look at the kid.

"Larry?" He asked.

"Yeah?" Larry asked.

"How's Jimmy?"

Larry glanced at the front of the store. "The girls are still holding him. He's still crying. Can't say I blame him. That was pretty rough shit."

"Yeah," Paul said quietly. "We need to get some people and some tarps and get the bodies out of here," Paul said. "Then get a crew to clean up the mess."

"What are we gonna do with the bodies?" Larry asked.

Paul thought about it a moment and said, "Take them up to the roof. We'll take them over the wall and into the yard behind the store tomorrow and bury them."

"Pretty dangerous move," Larry commented.

"What the fuck should we do with them then?" Paul snapped.

Seeing how on edge Paul was, Larry raised his hands and said, "Hey, man, it your call. I'll go get some people together and start cleaning up."

"You do that," Paul said to Larry's retreating form.

Paul took a deep breath and let it out. Steeling himself, he turned and looked where Jimmy was. The girls had gotten him up and were helping him over to the bathroom. Never once did Jimmy look up, as Jo and her mom practically carried him to the bathroom.

"I'm sorry," Paul whispered, to Jimmy. To himself. To everyone.


	15. The Morning After

Aaron hung up the phone and set it gently back in its charger. It took all of his self control to not throw the damn thing through the window. How the hell had things gotten so screwed up? He needed to get back to Big 5 before anything else happened.

"Are you okay?" Lisa asked from behind him.

"What?" Aaron asked, turning to face her.

Lisa stopped brushing her still damp hair and walked over to Aaron. She could see something was very wrong.

"What's going on?" She asked.

"I called to check in with Big 5," he said. He went on to tell her about Andy and Jimmy's mother.

"Holy shit," Lisa whispered. "How come nobody noticed that this guy was bit?"

Aaron shook his head. "With everything going on, nobody even thought about it. Plus, his brother was keeping him out of sight so nobody even saw him until after he had turned."

"Still, shouldn't everyone that goes outside be checked? I mean, that makes sense, right?" She asked.

"Yeah," Aaron said. "We're gonna start doing that. Little late, but hopefully we'll prevent this from happening again."

"So how do you plan on getting us back there?" She asked.

"I figure we'll jump the fence to the next house and check it out. Maybe they'll have a car and we can use it. If not, we go on to the next house."

"And if we don't find a car?"

"Well, if we head towards Long Avenue, it's mostly residential. That gives us a lot of area to work with to try and find something."

"Like I said, what if we don't?" She asked.

"What do you want me to say?" He snapped at her.

Lisa raised her hands and said, "Hey! Calm down. I'm just trying to make sure we're thinking of everything. I'd rather find the flaw in the plan now, rather than when we're out in the middle of the street or something."

Aaron took a breath and nodded to her. "You're right. Sorry. As for the plan, it sucks but we don't have a whole lot to work with here."

"Okay, so let's stop wasting time and get going. What do we need?" She asked.

Aaron thought about it for a moment. "We're going to need food and water, just in case we get somewhere without those. I'll grab the kid's backpack from his room. See if you can find something to carry water in. Nothing too big though."

Aaron headed back into the house while Lisa looked around the kitchen. She opened every cupboard but couldn't find any water bottles or cups with sealing lids. She opened the cupboards under the sink and found several small Tupperware dishes. She pulled one out and looked at it.

It was about the size of a small bowl and had its lid on it. She pulled out a couple more and shrugged.

"Better than nothing," she mumbled.

While she filled the Tupperware bowls with water, Aaron returned with the backpack and went to the pantry. He tossed a couple of cans of tuna and chili into the pack.

With the food loaded he joined Lisa at the sink and looked at her assortment of water filled Tupperware dishes.

"Don't say a word," she said, seeing his smirk.

"No bottled water or anything?" He asked.

"This is the best I could find," she said.

Aaron nodded. "We have to work with what we've got. You did good."

Lisa smiled at the compliment. She was really starting to feel like they were going to make it. Between the two of them, they'd managed to survive a hell of a lot. What was one more day jumping fences and then driving through a zombie filled wasteland?

She loaded the water into the backpack. Aaron zipped it closed and handed it to her.

"How does it feel?" He asked.

She pulled the backpack on and adjusted the straps a little. She walked around the kitchen, testing the weight.

"It's a little heavy, but I think I can manage. Why am I carrying this, by the way?"

"Because you've got the gun and I have a baseball bat," he answered. "Plus, I'm going point and if something happens to me, you'll need the food and water."

"You're just a happy son-of-a-bitch, aren't you?" She asked.

"Just being realistic," he said. "I'm gonna call Big 5 and let them know what we're up to. Then, we're off."

While Aaron made the call, Lisa went to the kitchen door and looked out into the backyard. Her heart was already starting to race and her stomach was doing flip flops. She pulled the Glock out and checked it.

Still only four bullets left. Too bad there wasn't a bullet fairy to drop off some more under her pillow last night.

"Ready?" Aaron said, making her jump.

"Yeah," she said. "Just a little jumpy."

Aaron chuckled. "You and me both. Let's get this over with."

The pair headed out into the backyard and over to the east wall. Aaron set his baseball bat up against the wall. He reached up and pulled himself up high enough to look into the next yard.

Dropping back down, he said, "There's a chain link fence on the other side of the next yard. After that we have another block wall. We'll head straight for the fence and then check the next yard."

"Why aren't we checking this next one?" She asked.

"It's a mobile with a carport and no car," he answered.

Aaron grabbed his bat and set it on top of the wall. He pulled himself up and dropped over the wall. He surveyed the yard and out towards the street. Nothing moved.

"Clear," he said.

Lisa jumped up and grabbed the top of the wall and pulled. She kicked at the wall and tried to get to the top. Her grip gave and she dropped back to the ground.

"Shit," she hissed.

"You okay?" Aaron asked.

"It's the backpack. I can get over but this damn thing's too heavy for me to climb over with it."

"Toss it over, and then climb over," Aaron said.

Lisa slid the back pack off and gently tossed it over the wall. Jumping up, she grabbed the top of the wall and pulled herself up and over.

"Sorry," she said to Aaron.

He shrugged and said, "No biggie. At least you tried. We'll just toss it over the block walls."

She nodded and the pair headed over to the chain link fence. They looked around but the coast was still clear. Aaron easily vaulted the fence and reached back over for the backpack. Lisa handed it to him and followed.

The yard they found themselves in had a house with attached garage. Aaron found a door leading into the garage. He tried the knob and found it unlocked.

"Get ready," he whispered to Lisa.

She pulled the Glock and held it ready. Aaron turned the knob and pushed the door open.

The garage was empty and the garage door was wide open. In the driveway a pair of zombies caught the motion of the door opening and turned to investigate. Seeing Aaron and Lisa, the zombies howled and ran into the garage.

Aaron yanked the door closed and he and Lisa ran for the block wall. Aaron leapt up and pulled himself to the top of the wall. He turned back to grab Lisa's hand letting his left leg slip over the other side of the wall. He felt something grab his ankle.

Before he could get his foot free another pair of hands grabbed his leg and pulled him over the wall. Aaron crashed to the ground on top of a zombie. He rolled and swung the bat around him, hitting an older female zombie and an older male. The pair staggered under the impact, giving Aaron a chance to get to his feet and take stock of the situation.

The zombie he'd fallen on looked to be just into his teens. Aaron guessed the other two were his parents.

The parents lunged at Aaron while the kid got to his feet. Aaron jumped out of the way of the father, feeling the zombie's fingers grabbing at his shirt as it fell past him.

He slammed the bat into the female's face, shattering her nose. She staggered under the impact, giving Aaron time to bring the bat around and hit her full force in the head. The side of her head crumpled from the hit and she fell to the ground.

He heard a gunshot and spun around. When he had hit the mother he'd left his back exposed to the kid. Fortunately, Lisa had managed to make it to the top of the wall and she'd shot the kid in the back.

Lisa took aim and shot at the father, only managing to hit him in the chest. Aaron smashed the zombie in the head with the bat. The zombie fell, but started to get back up. Aaron hit the zombie again and kept hitting it until it finally lay still.

Lisa dropped down from the wall, keeping her gun trained on the still twitching kid.

"You okay?" She asked.

"Yeah. Pretty fucking lucky too," he said, looking down at his foot. He could see where the kid had tried to bite trough the Gore-Tex of his boot. Aaron had bought the boots for their good ankle support and the fact that they were waterproof. Zombie-bite proof was a pretty damn good benefit too.

"What about this one?" She asked.

Aaron looked down at the kid. He was snarling and snapping at them but nothing below his neck moved.

"I think you got him in the spine," he said. "Leave him. Let's just get the fuck out of here."

"Yeah, and you be a little bit more careful, okay?"

"No shit," Aaron agreed.

Aaron headed towards the backdoor of the house, while Lisa headed towards the block wall on the east side of the yard. Seeing where Aaron was headed, she asked, "You're not really gonna check here are you? What if there are more?"

"If there were, they'd have come out when you started shooting," he said. "Even so, we'll take it slow and check. Besides, think about it. We have a whole family here. Whole families mean cars."

He had a point. Lisa followed him into the house. Checking anywhere and everywhere, the two made their way into the dining room and towards the door to the garage.

Lisa watched the inside of the house for any more zombies, while Aaron eased the garage door open.

"Shit," he hissed, closing the door.

"What?" She asked.

"Garage door's open and it looks like someone took off out of here in a hell of a hurry," he said.

Lisa spotted a picture on the wall in the front room. In it the two parents stood behind the kid from out back and a teenage girl. She pointed it out to Aaron and said, "Betcha that's who took off in the car."

"Yeah," he said. "I hope she made it somewhere safe."

They made their way back out into the backyard. Both carefully avoided looking at the teenage boy as he lay, biting at the ground.

Aaron went over the wall, being far more careful than last time. He and Lisa made their way through another pair of backyards, finding only empty carports. Aaron could see his disappointment mirrored in Lisa's eyes.

"You know, eventually we _have_ to find a car," he said, for her benefit and his.

"Yeah, right," she said. "With our luck?"

Not wanting to admit how right she was, Aaron pulled himself up yet another block wall and froze the top. Two men stood in the yard he was facing, both with shotguns leveled at him.

"Ummm…. Hi?"


	16. Survivors

The two men watched Aaron for a moment, before the older one said, "Come on over. But be quiet about it. You all have got them stirred up with all the noise you're making."

"Sorry," Aaron mumbled as he pulled himself over the wall. Lisa tossed the backpack over and joined him.

"I'm Aaron and this is Lisa," Aaron said.

"I'm Art and this is my son-in law Harry," the older man said, lowering his shotgun. Harry, however, kept his shotgun aimed at Aaron and Lisa.

"Harry, it'd be nice if you'd point that somewhere else," Lisa commented.

"No way. We don't know if you've been bit. I ain't taking no chances," Harry said.

"Well, if we are bit, we're not planning on sticking around long enough for you to find out," Aaron said. "We're trying to find a car and make our way back to Big 5."

"Harry, put the gun down," Art said. "Now, why're you all trying to get to Big 5?"

"I work there," Aaron answered. "We have a group of people there and a good supply of food, water and weapons. You're welcome to join us. It might be a little safer there than here."

"Nah," Art said, "We've done pretty good locking this place up nice and tight. Got plenty of food and we can always raid the neighbors places if we need to."

"Speaking of your neighbors," Aaron said, keeping a close watch on the shotgun Harry still had trained on them. "Do you know if any left a car we can snag?"

Art shook his head. "It was pretty crazy the first couple of days. We were too busy stealing stuff from Ace and boarding this place up to notice."

"What about you? Don't you have an extra car we can borrow?" Lisa asked.

Harry snorted a laugh. "Yeah, right. We're not letting you have _anything_ of ours."

Art put his hand on Harry's shoulder and said, "Son, why don't you go on inside with the others. Maybe check on Little Harry. I'll see that these folks move along."

Harry glared at Lisa and Aaron before snapping his shotgun up and heading into the house. Art watched him go, shaking his head. "He don't mean nothing by the attitude. We let one of our neighbors in and found out too late she was bit. Girl nearly got Little Harry before we took care of her."

"Sorry to hear that," Aaron said. "Have you heard from anyone else? We haven't seen too many people since… you know."

"A couple of buddies of mine are holed up way out in Mohave Valley. Harry's cousin is up by the airport. That's about all we've heard from. Heard some cars and stuff a couple of times but other than that it's been pretty quiet."

Aaron nodded. It was pretty much what he had expected. By now, everyone had holed up somewhere safe and were waiting. Waiting for the Marines. Waiting for the food or water to run out. Waiting for the zombies to get in. Aaron was starting to wonder if waiting around was such a good idea. Eventually food was going to run out. Power was going to go out. What then? They needed a plan.

"So, do any of your neighbors have guns or anything that might help us?" Lisa asked.

Art thought about it a moment. "Don't know too many of my neighbors to answer that. Most of them rent for a few months then move on. This neighborhood ain't what it was when I bought my house in '83."

"Art, do you have some paper and a pen?" Aaron asked.

"Sure. Why?" Art asked.

"I'm gonna give you Big 5's number and I'd like you to give us your number," Aaron answered. "Just in case something happens to you or just to stay in contact. It might help my group's morale knowing there are other survivors out here."

Art thought about it. Kid had a pretty good idea. If they could get in contact with as many survivors as possible it would give them a better picture of how bad things were.

"Stay here a sec," he said, heading into the house.

"Are you sure it's such a good idea giving him this much info about us and where we are?" Lisa asked.

"All things considered, we have to take the chance," Aaron answered. "What if something happened to Big 5? We may need to bug out and if we keep the lines of communication open; maybe we'll have some safe houses to fall back to."

Art came back out with a pad of paper. He tore off the top piece and handed it to Aaron. "That's our number and everyone else we've been in contact with. Figure they might like to hear some new voices," he said.

"Thanks," Aaron said, taking the paper, folding it up and putting it in his pocket. He took the pad from Art and wrote down the number for Big 5.

"After we leave, if you want to give them a call and tell them you saw us and give them these numbers, just in case something happens to us, I'd appreciate it," Aaron said.

"I can do that," Art said taking the pad back from Aaron.

Art stuck out his hand and Aaron shook it.

"Hope to hear from you soon," Aaron said.

"You'll be in our prayers," Art said.

Lisa and Aaron made their way to the east side of Art's yard and went over the wall. The next yard had an empty carport waiting for them.

"I want to check the house," Aaron said. "We're not gonna make it on a baseball bat and a gun with four rounds."

"Two," Lisa corrected him. "Don't forget about that guy and his son."

"Right," Aaron said. "We _definitely_ need more firepower."

The pair made their way to the side door of the mobile in front of them. Aaron tried the door and found it unlocked. He pushed the door open and went in, bat up and ready.

After the pair had checked the house for zombies, they started searching for weapons. They spent a half hour checking, but to their mounting frustration, found nothing.

They headed back out and went over the chain link fence into the next yard. They made their way to the side door of the house. Aaron tried the knob but it was locked. He led Lisa to the back of the house. A couple of large windows faced the backyard. Aaron and Lisa checked the windows but didn't see anything moving around inside.

Aaron tapped the glass with his bat a couple of times, trying to break it as quietly as possible. The window shattered and pieces fell to the ground making more noise.

"I don't think that was loud enough. Some of the zombies across the river might not have heard you," Lisa grumbled.

"Didn't see you offering a better idea," Aaron replied, rubbing his bat along the frame of the window to knock out the last of the glass.

Handing Lisa his bat, Aaron climbed through the window. He reached back and took his bat and the backpack from Lisa. He helped her through the window and the pair made their way into the house.

Aaron peeked into the bedroom across from the one they had broken into. What he saw brought a smile to his face. On the wall a rifle and a shotgun sat in a gun rack, almost like they were waiting for him.

Lisa saw them and practically screamed, "Yes!"

"Shh!" Aaron hissed. "We still need to sweep the house."

"Come on," she said, "With all the noise we made getting in here, don't you think we have been attacked by now?"

"Weren't you the one telling me to be more careful? This is being more careful," he replied.

After a couple of minutes of checking, they were sure they were alone. The pair made their way back to the guns.

Aaron pulled the shotgun off the rack and handed it to Lisa. He pulled open the drawer at the bottom of the rack and found two boxes of ammo for the shotgun. He handed these to Lisa as well.

While she loaded the shotgun, Aaron pulled the other rifle off of the rack. It was a little older 30.06. He pulled a box of shells out of the rack's drawer along with a single clip. He found a half full box of shells for a .357 but that was it.

"Shit," he grumbled.

"What is it?" Lisa asked.

"Well, there's only one clip for this 30.06. If things get hairy, I'm going to be loading the damn thing a round at a time, while trying to aim and shoot," he said.

"So? I'll be doing the same with the shotgun," Lisa said.

"Yeah, but with a shotgun, if your aim is a little off, you might still hit something with the shot. With this a miss is a miss," he said.

"Quit your bitching," she said. "At least we found _something_."

"Yeah," he said. "Still, I'd give my left nut for a damn M-16 about now."

"Shit, _I'd_ give your right nut for one of my own," she said.

They shared a laugh and then got down to the business of checking and loading their weapons. Once they had the weapons loaded, and ammo shoved into every pocket, Aaron picked up the box of .357 shells and said, "Check the nightstands and around the bed for a .357."

He went over and pulled open the drawer of the nightstand and found the pistol right away. He pulled it out and checked the cylinder. Six rounds sat waiting for him. With a grin he snapped the cylinder closed. He walked over, grabbed the box of shells and handed them and the .357 to Lisa.

"I'll take the Glock," he said.

"Are you sure?" She asked.

"Yeah," said, taking the Glock from her.

Aaron didn't meet her eyes as he took the Glock. He wanted it just in case they got into a jam they couldn't get out of. He intended on the last two rounds being for him and Lisa.

As much as he tried to hide his thoughts, Lisa could tell something was up by the sudden change in his attitude. She kept looking over at him while she slid the .357 shells into her front pocket, hoping he'd suddenly tell her what was going on in his head.

Taking a deep breath, Aaron shoved aside his worries and got back to thinking about what they needed to do. Now that they had some good weapons, they needed to get some wheels.

"Ready?" Aaron asked, meeting her eyes this time.

"As I'll ever be," Lisa answered, still curious what he had been thinking about.

The two headed back out of the house and over the fence into the neighbor's yard. They found yet another empty carport and a new problem. On the other side of the next fence was an empty lot.

"Shit," Lisa hissed.

Aaron pressed himself up against the back of the trailer, trying to stay as hidden as possible. All they needed now was a damn zombie wandering around the lot and the shit would hit the fan.

He slid along the back of the trailer and peeked around the corner. For a change, luck was on their side.

He looked back at Lisa and shook his head, indicating no zombies. She joined him and whispered, "What's the plan?"

"Both of us over the fence at the same time," he answered. "We run like hell and get over the next fence and go from there."

"Why not go over the fence behind this place and play it safer?" She asked.

Aaron shook his head. "All of them are trailers and I don't see any cars."

Lisa looked and saw he was right. She checked the straps on her backpack and got ready.

Aaron made his way to the fence, watching the street carefully for any movement. Still seeing nothing, he waved his arm at Lisa and the two went over the fence.

Lisa's heart hammered in her chest as they sprinted for the next fence. It couldn't have been more than a dozen yards, but each step seemed to take an hour. When they reached the fence, Lisa grabbed the top and tried to throw herself over. He foot caught on the top of the fence and she crashed down hard on her shoulder.

Lisa's crossing had left the fence shaking and rattling along its length. Aaron was sure every zombie for a mile could hear it. Not wasting any time, he grabbed Lisa and hauled her to her feet. He could feel her shaking under his hands as he forced her to look at him.

"You okay?" He whispered.

Sheepishly she nodded and said, "I'm sorry. It was just being out in the open like that…"

"I know," Aaron said. During the run across the field, Aaron had been sure every zombie in town could hear his heart trying to slaw its way out of his chest.

"We're gonna go inside and take a break," he told Lisa. "Hopefully, none of them heard the fence and we'll keep going in a little while."

He led her over to a sliding glass door at the rear of the house. He tried to slide the door open but it was locked.

The house he and Cecelia had been renting when she was pregnant with Katie had a sliding glass door in the bedroom, just like this one. Every time they went outside and slid the door closed it had locked them out until Aaron had found a little trick to get past the lock.

Grabbing the bottom of the door's handle, Aaron lifted the sliding glass door up in its track. Slowly, he slid the good open.

He turned and, seeing the look on Lisa's face, gave her a quick grin. "My old place in California had the same stupid gravity lock on the back patio door."

With their weapons ready, the two entered the house. Just like the last few times they checked the house and didn't find anyone home. When they reached the front room, Aaron froze. The front door was standing wide open.

With Lisa covering him, Aaron strode over and pushed the door closed. He threw the deadbolt and leaned his head against the door. He needed to stop freezing every time he saw something like an open door. Freezing would get him killed.

They checked the rest of the house and found it clear of zombies and weapons. Aaron walked over then opened the garage door and, finally, found what he was looking for.

He walked up to the minivan and ran his hand along the hood. It looked to be in pretty good shape. It pry wouldn't be when they were done with it, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was they finally had a vehicle.

"Not exactly the car I wanted to drive through the apocalypse in," Lisa commented.

"Better than nothing. Plus, it's not a Civic or some piece of crap like that," Aaron said. "Now we just have to find the keys."

It didn't take long to find they keys. They were lying right in the middle of the kitchen table next to a smear of blood.

Aaron picked them up, his eyes still on the blood. Was everywhere going to be like this? Little splatters and smears of blood that meant someone had made it out, only to die and come back later.

Clenching the keys tightly, he and Lisa went back to the van to get it ready to go.


	17. Return

Lisa and Aaron used pillowcases to pack as much canned food as possible from the house. They loaded every container with a sealing lid with water and packed it all into the van.

Aaron hoped they weren't going to need so many supplies but he felt it was better to be ready. If things went well and they made it to Big 5, he planned on leaving the supplies in the van. If something ever happened to Big 5 and they could make it to the van the supplies would be worth their weight in gold.

While Aaron finished the last of the packing, Lisa went to every window to see if they had any unwelcome company. To her surprise, the street was still clear. She had been sure the noise she'd made coming over the fence would have attracted some attention by now.

She went back into the garage and let Aaron know the good news.

"Cool," he said. "Call Big 5 and let them know we're getting ready to go and to be ready for us."

While Lisa called Big 5, Aaron did one last walkthrough of the house. It looked like they had everything that they might need. He hoped.

He went back into the garage and found Lisa waiting for him.

"I talked to that Larry guy. He said they have a diversion all set up for us," she said. "They want us to come down Plata and come in the store room door."

"What?" Aaron asked.

"He said they've got a really good diversion and all of the zombies will be away from the door," Lisa said.

Aaron shook his head. "Did you talk to Paul? Did he explain what this diversion was?"

"No," Lisa said. "I just talked to Larry and he said they'd be ready."

Aaron frowned. They were going to have to create one hell of a diversion to clear the front of store by the store room door.

"Maybe I should call in and find out what they have planned," he said.

"Larry said he was headed up to start the diversion," she said. "What if the diversion doesn't last long and we can't get in because we waited?"

"Alright," he said, "let's go. If worse comes to worse, we can always head back here or something."

The pair got into the van and locked the doors. Aaron slid the key into the ignition and looked over at Lisa. She gave him a small smile and nodded her head. He twisted the key and the engine roared to life immediately.

Aaron let out a sigh of relief. With the way their luck had been going, he was sure the van wasn't going to start. Hopefully, this was a sign of good luck to come.

He reached up and hit the garage door opener clipped to the sun visor. Behind them the door started its slow ascent. He grimaced at the racket it made at it rattled up its track.

Finally, the door was up and Aaron backed out into the street. Shifting into drive, he started up the street as a pair of zombies came tearing down the street at them. Glancing in his side view mirror, he saw several more zombies.

Hitting the gas, they sped up the road. Aaron managed to avoid one zombie, but the other slammed into the passenger side of the hood before falling under the van. The van bounced over the zombie as more zombies ran into the intersection ahead of them.

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea," Lisa said.

Aaron ignored her as he tried to avoid as many zombies as he could. The van shuddered as he plowed through the zombies he could not avoid. Once they were past the zombies, the road was clear all the way to Long Avenue.

He slowed as they approached the intersection at Long. Cars were parked haphazardly all over. To his left, he saw a massive pileup that completely blocked the road.

Zombies that had been milling around the wreck turned at the sound of their approach. With a collective growl, they charged the van.

Aaron hit the gas and cut across Long. He raced down the street and was forced by large numbers of zombies and more car wrecks to go farther and farther from Big 5.

After almost twenty minutes, he finally had them headed in the right direction.

"Something's up," Lisa said pointing at a large column of black smoke rising into the sky ahead of them.

"Oh, Jesus, no, no no!" Aaron hissed as he stomped on the gas.

"What?" Lisa asked.

"That smokes gotta be coming from Big 5," Aaron said through clenched teeth. "It's their diversion."

At the top of Plata, they could see down onto Aaron's nightmare. The west side of Big 5 looked to be on fire. As they watched part of the west wall collapsed. He spotted several people on the north side of the roof.

"They're evacuating," he said. "If they follow the plan, they'll go down the north wall and into River Bluffs. We need to meet them there."

"How?" Lisa asked.

"We're going to pull up to the wall between River Bluffs and the Safeway parking lot. You grab all the crap you can carry and I'll cover you," he said. "I figure we'll hook up with everyone and head down to the marina and see about getting a boat or something for now."

Lisa unbuckled her seatbelt and climbed into the back of the van as Aaron flew down the road. She pulled her backpack on and yanked open the pillowcases. She tossed the water containers out and started cramming as much food as she could into the pillowcases.

"What are you doing?" Aaron asked, glancing at her in the rearview mirror.

"We're going to be on the river. Water's not going to be a problem but food might be," she said, continuing to move the canned food around. When she was done she was down to three pillowcases. Hopefully, it would be enough.

Aaron sped across the intersection at Long and into the Safeway parking lot. He took a quick glance at Big 5 and saw what had to be hundreds of zombies all around it. Several zombies saw the van and chased after it.

Lisa set the shotgun and 30.06 on the passenger seat and braced herself by the van's side door. Aaron turned into the Safeway parking lot and jammed on the brakes. Lisa leapt out of the van and ran around to the driver's side. She tossed the pillowcases over the wall. She grabbed the top of the wall and, with a boost from Aaron, made it up and over.

Aaron grabbed the top of the wall and yanked himself up and over just before the zombies made it to the van. He slung the 30.06 across his back and picked up the shotgun from where he'd tossed it. After a quick check to see it was clear, he led Lisa down the street.

They heard a loud crash, making Aaron wonder if Big 5 was collapsing from the damage. He and Lisa quickened their pace. Ahead of them, Aaron spotted someone running across the road.

"Hey!" He yelled.

Danny snapped his rifle up at the sound of Aaron's shout. Seeing him, Danny lowered the rifle and yelled, "Hurry! The fence collapsed."

Aaron and Lisa ran to join Danny as more survivors came running after him. Carlos, the other Del Taco survivor, along with Paul carrying someone across his shoulder ran into the street.

"Go!" Paul screamed. "They're right behind us!"

The group ran towards the marina, Danny in the lead. Behind them, they heard the thunder of hundred of running feet.

They made it down into the marina and Aaron saw several small boats, a couple of jet boats and one large houseboat.

"Go for the boat at the end of the dock!" He yelled.

They ran to the end of the dock and climbed into the boat. Aaron and Danny untied the mooring lines and shoved the boat away from the dock. It slowly drifted into the marina as the mob of zombies reached the dock.

To Aaron's surprise they just stopped. They just stood on the dock growling and clawing the air. They made no attempt to jump across to the boat. In fact, they made every effort not to fall into the water.

He filed that away for later and turned to his group. Paul laid Jo's mother on the deck of the boat and Aaron gagged at what he saw. All of her hair was burned away and her entire left side was a mass of burns.

"Jesus," he whispered.

The sight and smell of her made Carlos lean over the side of the boat and puke. It took every once of willpower for Aaron not to puke as he knelt down next to her and checked for a pulse. He found nothing

"She's gone," he whispered.

For a moment everyone was quiet, only the howling of the zombies filled the air.

"What are we going to do with her body?" Carlos asked, wiping his sleeve across his mouth.

Aaron sighed. They couldn't keep her body lying on the bottom of the boat, not out in the sun and heat.

"We'll lay her to rest in the water. She'll be safe from them in the water, I think," he said. "Someone help me."

He reached down and took her shoulders. Danny came forward and grabbed her legs. The two picked her up and eased her over the side of the boat.

"I'm sorry," Aaron said, turning away from the sight of her ruined body.

"Did anyone else make it out?" He asked

Carlos and Danny looked at Paul who stared out at the water, not moving. Danny looked at Aaron and just shook his head.

"My God, what happened?" he asked.


	18. A Diversion

_Earlier that day_

Larry hung up the phone and looked around for Paul. He spotted him lying on his sleeping bag, finally back to sleep. He'd been going almost nonstop since the rescue attempt on Del Taco and, with what happened to Jimmy's mom last night; he had finally run out of gas.

Larry went to the Manager's office and found Jimmy in front of the computer. The kid had been there since they had moved what was left of his mom to the back of the store room. He walked in the door and said, "Hey, kid."

Jimmy turned away from the monitor and stared at him with miserable, bloodshot eyes.

"Wanna get some payback on them fuckers?" Larry asked.

For the first time today, Larry saw a spark of something other than sadness in the boy's eyes. "Yes," he whispered. "Yes, I do."

"Come help me," Larry said. "Aaron and the girl are on their way in and we're gonna create a diversion, if you're up for it,"

Jimmy nodded and followed Larry out of the Manager's office. The two headed to the store room where Larry had already stacked what he thought he would need. He hadn't said anything to Paul about what he had planned. He knew Paul would call it too risky. It wouldn't be risky if they were careful and Larry figured it might help Jimmy a little.

He grabbed the top box and pointed to the second one. "Careful with it. You do not want to go dropping it."

Jimmy looked at the label on the box. Kerosene Lantern: Eight Count. He looked up at Larry, his eyes wide.

"We're gonna make those fuckers pay," Larry whispered, thinking back to his wife and grandson. "Oh, yeah. They're gonna pay."

The shock drained from Jimmy's face and was replaced by a look of rage. Through clenched teeth, he said, "Make them pay."

The two carefully made their way up onto the roof. Once there, Larry had Jimmy set the lanterns by the west wall. He headed over to the east wall and stared down at the monsters. There had to be a couple hundred of the bastards down there now. He stared down at them, wondering if his wife and grandson were out there somewhere, hunting for the living.

Seeing Jimmy's mother die, knowing that the boy was now alone in the world, had brought back the terror of seeing his own family die. He hadn't been able to go back to sleep after Paul killed the monster that had been Jimmy's mom. Every time he closed his eyes he saw the monster his grandson had become.

Tears welling up in his eyes, Larry screamed down at the mass of zombies below him. He screamed and screamed and watched as more and more looked up at him. He walked to the south wall, leading the mob. Jimmy joined him and they screamed together at the monsters.

After almost ten minutes they were back on the west wall, the mass of zombies below them screaming and clawing for them.

Larry reached down and opened the box of lanterns. He pulled one out and looked over at Jimmy. The boy had pulled out one of his own and met Larry's eyes. They nodded to each other and, as one, opened the reservoir on the lamps and poured the kerosene down onto the mob below. Laughing, they threw the empty lanterns down at the monsters below.

They emptied every lantern onto the mob and, when they ran out, they went back in for another box each. When the next eight had been emptied on the crowd, Larry pulled out the road flare he had taken from an emergency kit at the front of the store. He snapped it alight and looked down at the mob before him.

"Payback," he whispered and tossed the flare into the crowd.

The flare fell and hit the pool of kerosene. Flames raced across the ground behind Big 5. Zombie after zombie burned. Those on fire tried to press back but the weight of the mob behind them kept them from running. More and more zombies burned as the crowd crushed forward onto those already on fire.

"Let's get some more," Larry said.

Jimmy grinned and followed him down into the store. Larry grabbed another box and raced back to the roof. Jimmy grabbed a box and saw another item on the shelf.

"Yes," he whispered, grabbing it and setting it on his box of lanterns.

He raced back onto the roof to empty his next eight lanterns down onto the mob. The fire had spread and dozens of zombies now burned below. The smell sickened and excited him at the same time.

Once he was out of lanterns, Jimmy picked up his extra special gift to the monsters below. He leaned out over the side of the building and held it up for them to see.

Larry looked over at the boy and the rage that had consumed him evaporated and was replaced by terror. The boy had a propane bottle in his hand.

"No!" He screamed, reaching for Jimmy but it was too late. Jimmy hurled the bottle down into the crowd. It bounced off of one burning monster and disappeared from sight.

Larry thought he saw the bottle kicked towards the store before another wave of zombies arrived and crushed the burning ones harder against the back of the store. After a minute, he let out a sigh of relief. Somehow the bottle hadn't exploded.

What had gotten into him? He had put the kid at risk along with everyone else at the store. Taking a deep breath, he reached over to pull Jimmy away from the edge of the roof when the world went white.


	19. Backfire

"We need to do something about this," Gloria hissed.

John Carter nodded in agreement. The poor girl had been made to actually stand a watch after the horrible incident last night. What she had to watch for was beyond him though.

"Gloria, my dear," he said, taking her hand, "we are a team in this. We need to find a way to make sure you do not have to 'stand a watch' again."

John paused and thought for a moment. "Do you have any conditions that might make it impossible for you to do the work _they_ should be doing? Maybe high blood pressure or a history of heart disease?"

"No, my doctor said I am in excellent…" she paused, seeing the look in his eye.

"Wait. Now that I think about it, I may have forgotten about my blood pressure problem with everything that has been going on. It's a lucky thing nothing has happened to me with all of these frightful events."

"Lucky indeed," John agreed.

The two grinned at each like a pair of mischievous kids as the wall behind them exploded. Chunks of burning concrete slammed through the pair, killing them instantly. Debris flew through the store slamming into the security gate. Part of the gate ripped free from the roof mount and crashed through the front windows.

* * *

Paul awoke to a burning backpack crashing down on him. He shoved the backpack away, grabbed his shotgun and looked into hell. Bodies and debris lay all over the store. Through a gaping hole in the back wall he could see zombies starting to pick themselves up all the way out in the street.

"Everybody up! We gotta get up on the roof. Hurry!" He yelled.

* * *

On the roof, Larry lay against the east wall, trying to get up. He tried to move his legs but nothing was working. He reached down and touched his leg and felt nothing.

_Oh God, no_, he thought. Tears running down his cheeks, he tried again and again to get up but he could not move.

He managed to get turned over and pulled himself up the wall. He peered over the side and found Jimmy. The explosion had thrown the boy clear off the roof. He had landed on the roof of the Haggerty's truck, crushing it. Blood covered the roof and sides of the truck. Larry had never seen anything so red.

Letting go of the wall, he slid back down, sobs tearing at him as he lay on the roof.

* * *

Jo picked herself up and looked around. She got to her feet, looking around for her parents. She spotted them lying next to each other. A pool of blood was forming under her father and a burning piece of tarp had landed on her mother.

"No!" She screamed, running to her parents. She yanked the tarp off of her mother and gagged at the smell of burned flesh.

"Help me!" She screamed.

Paul heard Jo scream and headed over to her. Grimacing at the sight of her parents, he knelt down next to her and put his fingers to her father's throat. No pulse. Expecting the worst, he touched her mother's throat and, to his surprise, found a pulse.

Did he tell her? There was no way they could do anything for her mother. Would it be better to lie and tell her she was gone?

He never had the chance to make the choice. Mrs. Alvarez coughed and began to shudder.

"Oh God! She's alive!" Jo said.

They didn't have time for this. Paul looked back out of the hole in the wall and saw zombies moving towards the store. He grabbed Jo's mother and slung her over his shoulder.

"What are you doing! She's hurt!" Jo yelled.

"And she'll be zombie food if we don't get out of here," he snapped. "Find your baby brother and let's go!"

Paul turned and started towards the store room door, leaving Jo to look for Little Javier. Instead of her brother, she found Jennie, one of the Safeway cashiers, lying on the ground, her hands clamped on her leg.

"Help me," Jennie said. "I think my leg is broken."

Jo looked past Jennie at where her parent's sleeping bags were. Sure enough, Little Javier was lying on his blankets.

"I'll be right back," she said to Jennie.

She rushed over and picked up her baby brother. He was bawling at the top of his lungs. It was the most beautiful sound Jo had ever heard. He was alive!

She turned and went back over to Jennie when gunfire erupted.

* * *

The first zombies came through the hole and were met by blasts from Carlos and Danny's shotguns. Shot after shot was fired, each one taking down a zombie, but still more came.

Paul reached the door to the store room and yelled, "Let's go! Danny take Jo's mom!"

Danny ran over and pulled Jo's mom off of Paul and into his arms. Paul was sure if Danny's eyes got any wider they would pop right out of his head.

"Get to the roof," he ordered the two.

Lifting his shotgun he fired into the mob of zombies. He spotted Dave Peters pushing part of the wall off of himself. He started to call out to him but it was too late. The pack of zombies leapt onto the old man and tore him apart.

Screaming, Paul fired his shotgun into the mob. When it was empty, he dropped it, pulled his Glock and opened fire.

* * *

Seeing the zombies pouring into the store, Jo held Little Javier tight against her and ran towards Paul. Jennie screamed for her but she ignored the woman. Her brother was her only priority now.

She was halfway across the store when a zombie hit her from the side. She crashed to the ground, dropping her brother. She saw the bundle of blankets hit the ground and roll across the floor.

She tried to crawl after him but a pair of zombies leapt on her and sank their teeth into her. Another zombie leapt on the bundle of blankets and tore into it.

"No!" She screamed.

* * *

Paul saw Jo go down and saw the zombies tear into her. He saw one pick up her little brother and tear into the defenseless baby.

More zombies leapt on the screaming girl, leaving Paul with only one option. He pointed his gun at Jo and pulled the trigger.

_Click_

The gun had locked open on empty and he hadn't even realized it. Jo's screams suddenly came to a horrifying stop. Tossing the gun away, he turned and ran into the store room, his last sight a pack of zombies finding Jennie.

He rushed up the ladder and climbed out onto the roof. He found Carlos, his shotgun pointed at Larry, screaming at the man.

"What the fuck is going on?" Paul asked in a weary voice.

"This fuck was throwing kerosene down and burning the monsters!" Carlos shouted, spittle flying from his mouth. "He says that Jimmy kid threw a bottle of propane down into the fire and that's what caused the fucking explosion."

Paul looked at Larry. "Is that what happened?"

Larry nodded, tears running down his face. "Paul, I swear, I didn't know the kid was going to through a fucking bottle of propane. We just wanted to get these fuckers away from the front. Aaron and the girl are on their way here. We were just trying to help."

"Aaron called and you didn't wake me?" Paul asked quietly.

"Yeah, I thought I could handle things and let you get some rest. You know, after everything that happened last night."

Shaking his head, Paul said, "You should have gotten me up."

"I'm sorry," Larry whispered.

"Sorry's not gonna cut it, motherfucker," Carlos hissed. "Do you know what you've fucking done?"

"Enough," Paul said. "We need to go before the roof collapses. We'll toss a couple of the emergency bags off the roof and into that backyard in River Bluffs. Then we'll go down, get over the fence and head for the marina."

"What about her?" Danny asked, nodding towards Jo's mom. "She's not gonna make it, man."

"We take her," Paul answered.

"But…"

"We take her!" Paul yelled.

Danny snapped his mouth shut and nodded. The three headed over and tossed several backpacks off of the roof. Each of them tossed the rope Aaron had had them tie off for just this kind of emergency. Paul remembered making fun of Aaron when he had been setting up these ropes. He hoped he could see Aaron one more time to apologize.

"What about Larry?" Danny asked. "He said he can't move."

"I'll leave him a gun," Paul said. "Now get going."

Carlos and Danny checked over the side, making sure there were no zombies, before going over the edge.

Paul walked back over to Larry and stood over him.

"You really fucked us good," Paul said. "Do you know how many people are dead because of you?"

"I am so sorry, Paul. It was a mistake," Larry sobbed.

"Well, you're going to learn from that mistake. I'm not leaving you a gun. You're going to stay up here and die. Hopefully, you'll die slowly. See you in hell, motherfucker," Paul said, turning and walking away.

He ignored Larry's screams as he tied a rope under Jo's mom's arms and lowered her to Danny and Carlos. He quickly made his way down the rope to join the others.

A zombie came around the side of the building and, seeing the four, howled and charged. Carlos snapped up his shotgun and killed the monster.

"Get over the fence," Paul snapped at Danny.

Once he was over, Paul and Carlos lifted Mrs. Alvarez up and over. With her over, Carlos and Paul grabbed the fence and pulled themselves up. Paul caught sight of dozens of zombies rounding the corner and coming for them as he threw himself over.

The zombies hammered on the fence, rattling it. Already pieces of wood started to break under the relentless onslaught. Paul threw Mrs. Alvarez over his shoulder as Danny and Carlos grabbed the backpacks they had thrown over.

"Let's get the fuck out of here," Paul said. "Danny, take point."

* * *

"And that's pretty much when we ran into you," Danny concluded.

Aaron couldn't believe it. Ten people dead in less than five minutes. Everyone he had worked with was gone. Jimmy and Jo. He could see their faces so clearly in his mind. He shuddered as he tried to suppress the sobs that wanted to tear him apart.

"My God," he whispered, "ten dead."

"Larry's not dead," Paul said quietly from the back of the boat.

"Yeah, I didn't hear a shot, so he must still be up there," Carlos said.

"You didn't hear a shot because I didn't leave him a gun," Paul said. "He deserves to die slowly for what he did."

Aaron met Paul's eyes and had to look away. There was nothing left in Paul's gaze. No anger, no fear, just a simple pit of nothingness.

Everyone was quiet for a moment before Lisa asked, "So what do we do now?"

Aaron looked at her and then the others. They were all looking to him for an answer.

"Yeah, that's the question," he sighed, sitting down. "What _do_ we do now?"


	20. The Boat

Since Smiley Killaz might hunt me down and stab me or something, I dusted this beast off and will try to get her moving again

* * *

The smell of rotting flesh burned in the survivor's nostrils while the sound of the snarling mob tore at their sanity. Already, Danny and Aaron had had to tackle Carlos to keep him from swimming back to the dock to kill the zombies with his bare hands.

After they had calmed Carlos, Aaron returned to the bow of the boat to watch the zombies. They growled and clawed at the air, trying to reach him, but they would not step off of the dock. Even the ones by shore would only come into the water up to their waist before they would stop. He didn't get it. They were dead. They didn't need to breathe. What was it about the water that held such a power over them?

"Do you think glaring at them hard enough will make them go away?" Lisa asked as she sat down beside him.

Aaron chuckled and asked, "A man can dream, can't he?"

"Well, while you're dreaming, dream us up some damn umbrellas," she said.

"I'll get right on it. So how bad are we?"

Lisa sighed and ran her hand through her hair. "We've got three boxes of shotgun shells, two boxes of 9mm and a ton of socks and t-shirts."

"What about food?"

"Two days. And about a day and a half of water."

"I'm not really worried about water," he said, waving his hand out at the marina. "We've got plenty of that."

"Really?" She asked, raising her eyebrows at him. "You're going to drink the same water some zombies fell in? River water was shitty before this, now, with who knows how many zombies in it, it's probably lethal."

"Great. Just keep on with all the good news, Lisa."

"How about you give me some good news and tell me you have a plan," she said.

Aaron barked a humorless laugh. "I haven't got shit. All I can think about right now is Katie."

"Your daughter?"

"Yeah. I got home and called my ex when things started going nuts. I left a message for her to call Big 5 and let me know Katie was okay. Now… now, I'll never know. I mean there was no chance of me ever seeing her again in all this, right? But at least I would have known she was alive," he said.

"I'm sorry," she said, putting her hand on his shoulder.

He shrugged and said, "Yeah, the whole damn world's sorry. Not gonna help one bit though."

Was this it? Lisa wondered. Should they just give up? All they seemed to be doing was surviving long enough to see someone else they knew die. Was this what they had to look forward to for the rest of their lives? She wanted to give up so bad. It would be so easy. All she had to do was put the .357 against her head and squeeze the trigger and it would all be over.

"No," she said, shaking her head, forcing the thought out of her head. "No, no, no, no!"

"Are you alright?" Aaron asked, wondering if she was about to lose it like Carlos.

"No, I'm not. I don't think any of us are," she said. "And sitting around here waiting to die isn't helping so let's _do_ something."

"Like?" He asked.

"Like maybe hotwiring this thing and getting the hell out of here"

"Okay. I don't know how to hotwire a boat, do you?" He asked.

"No," she said.

"Anyone else know how to hotwire a boat?" Aaron asked the others.

Carlos and Danny shook their heads. Paul continued to stare out at the water like he had since they'd gotten on the boat.

"Well, I guess we're back to square one," he said.

"Okay, screw hotwiring it. How about we just paddle our asses out into the river and float out of here?"

"What are we going to paddle with?"

"I don't know," she said, throwing up her hands in frustration. "We could tear off some cushions or use the backpacks. Hell, we could just use our damn hands. Anything to get us moving."

Aaron looked out at the water. There wasn't much of a current in the marina. They hadn't drifted all that far from where they'd pushed off from. It would be a pain to get the boat moving without an engine or paddles, but he thought Lisa was right, they could do it. The only problem was, once they were out in the river, they would be at the mercy of the current.

He looked back at the dock. He watched the zombies clawing at him. He listened to their snarling. He smelled their decaying flesh. They were like a cloud of death, smothering him.

Looking at Lisa, he said, "Okay, let's get the fuck out of here."

Standing, he turned to the others. "I'm assuming you were all listening to that?"

Carlos and Danny nodded their heads. Paul continued to stare at the water.

"Okay then, Danny, you and Lisa on the left. Carlos, you and me are on the right. Paul, are you gonna join us?"

Paul didn't move.

"Or you could just sit back there. That would be good too," Aaron grumbled.

"Umm… What are we going to paddle with?" Danny asked quietly.

"Your hands," Aaron answered.

"What if there are zombies down there? They could just grab us and yank us in," Carlos said.

"Do you have a better idea?" Aaron asked.

"No," Carlos said.

"Then shut the fuck up and paddle," Aaron said.


	21. The Boat II

Inch by inch, then foot by foot, the survivors paddled their way out of the marina. After what felt like an eternity, Aaron fell back in his seat as the current pulled the boat free. He watched the zombies on the docks, still reaching out for them, until they finally faded from sight.

"Okay," Carlos panted, "now what?"

All eyes again turned to Aaron.

"What are you looking at me for? She came up with the last idea," he said, nodding at Lisa.

She shook her head. "I'm beat. Let's just sit here for a few, okay?"

Aaron's sore arms agreed with her whole-heartedly. He sat and watched the houses along the river's edge slip past. He remembered the last time he and some of the Big 5 staff had taken a rafting trip. It had been so relaxing to just lean back and enjoy the sun and water. It had been heaven. Now, though, there was no relaxation. No enjoyment. Only plumes of black smoke rising to the east. Gunshots and screams from somewhere in the distance. Heaven had truly become Hell.

He wondered about the families that had lived along the river. Were they still alive? If so, where were they?

It made him think of John and Gloria. All of their money and what had it gotten them? Eaten in a sporting goods store.

For all of these people's money and houses and cars and boats…

"Boats," he said, sitting up.

"What?" Lisa asked.

"Boats. Look for boats," he said, pointing towards shore. "Almost all of the houses along the river have a dock. If one has a boat tied to it, we might be able to break into the house and find the keys."

All eyes turned towards shore and scanned the docks, but, for as far as the eye could see, all of the docks sat empty.

After a while, Lisa noticed the boat was getting farther from shore. It wasn't too bad now, but if they didn't do something about it, any boats they came across would be out of reach.

Reaching over the side and paddling, Lisa said, "The current's pulling us out."

"Shit," Aaron hissed, joining her. With a groan, Danny and Carlos fell in with the other two and started to paddle.

After a half hour of fighting the current, Danny fell back against the side of the boat, gasping. He couldn't do it any more. His arms felt like hundred pound weights were tugging them from their sockets.

"Danny get the fuck back over here," Aaron snapped, digging frantically at the water.

"Just gimme a sec, okay," Danny said, mopping the sweat off of his face.

"If we miss that boat because of your lazy ass, I swear to God, I'll put a fucking bullet in your head," Aaron hissed.

Danny's head snapped up and he looked downriver. Tied to a dock, not too far ahead, was the prize they had been looking for. The only question was could they get to it before the river swept them past.


	22. The Dock

Aaron pushed away the pain in his arms. He pushed away the exhaustion. He pushed away everything. The only thing that mattered was getting to that goddamned boat.

They were doing it. Slowly, they were moving closer to shore, but it was going to be close. He knew, if worse came to worse, as long as they got to shore they could backtrack. If the river would let them get to shore first.

"We could swim for it," Lisa said from beside him.

"Not without getting the guns and ammo wet," he said. "We lose those, we're dead."

"Good point," she said. "The only problem I see is how we're going to stop this thing without an engine. The current's not going to just stop and let us off."

"Yeah, that's why we're going to hit the upriver side of a dock. We should have enough time to get our shit and get onto the dock before the boat gets pulled back into the current."

"I don't like the word 'should' in that sentence," she said.

"If you've got something better, now's the time for it."

Without warning, the current that had been pulling them out shifted and nudged them towards shore. To add to their run of luck, the dock just upriver from the boat stuck out farther into the river than those around it. Aaron couldn't believe it. They were going to make it.

"Grab onto something," he yelled, yanking his arms out of the water.

The boat slammed into the dock, knocking everyone to the deck. Picking himself up, Aaron grabbed his 30.06 and scrambled up onto the dock. He surveyed the area, keeping watch for any welcoming committee.

Danny and Carlos grabbed their weapons and packs and made their way onto the dock. Lisa ran to the bow of the boat and handed off the pillowcases of canned food to Carlos and went back for Paul.

"Hey, Paul, we haven't really talked much but I really think you need to get your ass up and off the boat," she said.

Paul continued to stare out at the river. Sighing, Lisa put her hand on his arm and said, "I know you've gone through some bad shit. We all have. But we need you to come back now."

He still didn't move. Lisa was going to try again when Carlos shouted, "The boats going back out!"

Lisa looked off the back of the boat. The current that had slammed them bow first into the dock was now pulling the stern of the boat around and back out into the river.

Slapping Paul hard across the face, Lisa shouted, "Get the fuck up and move dammit."

Paul lurched to his feet and he and Lisa managed to dive off of the boat just as it slipped back out into the current. The five stood silently for a moment, watching the safe haven that had been their boat drift away.

Aaron walked over and knelt in front of Paul.

"Are you here?" He asked.

Paul met his eyes for a moment before looking away. Just barely above a whisper, he said, "God I wish I wasn't."

It wasn't the answer Aaron was looking for but, at least, Paul said something. Patting him on the shoulder, Aaron stood up and told them his plan. He and Lisa would take two of the shotguns and head over to the house the boat was docked at. They would check the house for zombies and, hopefully, find the keys to the boat. Danny would use the 30.06 to take out any threats from a distance. Carlos would take the last shotgun and guard the end of the dock in case anything came out of the house they were behind.

"And, Paul, I want you to keep the Glocks, just in case anything gets past Carlos or he needs to reload," Aaron finished.

"Whoa," Carlos said. "I don't like the idea of him being my backup, man. What if he wigs out and goes all catatonic again?"

"He won't," Aaron said. "Will you?"

Paul looked from Aaron to Carlos. "I won't let you down."

"Good. Now let's get this done. If the house is secure we can rest for a while and figure out what's next."

He and Lisa made their way up the dock. The dock ended in a small gate leading into the backyard of the house they were behind. Aaron twisted the knob on the gate but it did not turn.

"Figures," he grumbled, handing the shotgun back to Lisa. Grabbing the top of the gate, he swung his legs over and into the yard. He reached back and took his and Lisa's shotgun while she climbed over.

Taking back her shotgun, Lisa whispered, "I am _really_ getting sick of jumping fences."

"One more and, hopefully, we're done with that for a while," he replied.

They walked over to the six foot wrought iron fence that sat between the two houses. Aaron grabbed one of the bars and gave the fence a shake. It didn't budge.

"Well, at least, you won't have to worry about being quiet going over this one," he said.

Again, handing her his shotgun, Aaron made his way over the fence. She handed him the shotgun through the bars of the fence. He set hers on the ground in front of him and did a quick look around. Not finding any immediate threats, he said, "Come on over."

With a series of grunts and a stream of whispered curses, Lisa made her way over the fence.

"That shit is getting so old," she grumbled, picking up her shotgun.

The two crept towards the back doors of the house. There was a large floor to ceiling window between them and the double French doors. Aaron leaned around to peek in the window. Something was rushing the doors. He staggered back and brought the shotgun up as the doors banged open.


	23. Chapter 23

Aaron stepped back and away from the wall. He brought the shotgun up and took aim as the four people rushed out of the house.

"I'm telling you guys, I saw a boat," one of the four said.

Heart slamming in his chest, Aaron gently eased his finger off of the trigger. Just another pound or two of pressure and he would have had a dead teenager on his hands.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out, he said, "You know, you really should pay more attention when you come running out of your house during the apocalypse."

The four teenagers jumped at the sound of his voice, one of the girls letting off an ear piercing scream.

"Every zombie for five miles should know we're here now," Aaron grumbled.

"Well, you scared me," the girl said, ducking behind one of the boys.

"Whatever," Aaron said. "How about we take this conversation inside?"

"Ummm… okay," the taller of the two boys said.

Aaron waved over the rest of his group and the nine people made their way into the house. As Aaron walked through the door, the feel of cool, air-conditioned air blowing across his sun baked skin made him sigh with relief. At least for a few minutes, they were safe.

He slumped down onto a sofa and felt himself sink down into the cushions. He was beginning to wonder if he had died and gone to Heaven. If these kids had something more then canned stew and warm bottled water, he was going to kiss them.

"Nice place ya'all got here," Danny commented, dropping into one of the chairs.

"Look," the tall kid said, "we don't want any trouble. Ummm… we've got some money and you can take my mom's jewelry, but please don't hurt us."

"Do you really think we're gonna rob you in the middle of this shit?" Carlos snapped. "_Estupio puto_."

"Was that necessary?" Lisa asked, glaring at Carlos. Turning back to the teens, she said, "Look, we're not going to hurt you. It's been a rough day and a lot of people just died. We could use a place to rest and, maybe, get something other than canned food to eat. Can you help us?"

"Yeah. Yeah, we've got some food and stuff," he said.

"Pat!" The blonde girl hissed, smacking the boy on his arm.

"Like I said, we're not going to hurt you. Here," Lisa said, setting down the shotgun and walking over to the girl, her hand out. "My name's Lisa, what's yours?"

The blonde flinched and ducked back behind Pat. Lisa stood with her hand out, smiling at the girl. "Sweetie, I promise, no one is going to hurt you."

After a moment, the girl slowly stepped out from behind the boy and took Lisa's hand.

"I'm Sherry," she said.

"Sherry," Lisa said, her smile widening, "it's a pleasure to meet you."

While all eyes were on the girls, the other boy eased his way towards the shotgun. He wasn't sure why Pat was letting these people in and going to give them food too, but he wasn't about to be bossed around by them. It was time for him to show them who the boss really was.

With a quick lunge, he grabbed Lisa's shotgun and brought it up.

"Alright, nobody fucking move. Put all your guns on the floor. Now!"

"Connor!" Pat yelled. "What are you doing?"

"Saving our asses, stupid! Do you really think they just want to drop by and have lunch? No way, man. They're gonna take all our shit and then kill us!"

"No we're not," Lisa said, her hands up, trying to look as non-threatening as possible. "We just need a little help. Now, please, put the gun down."

"No way, bitch. You just stand there and shut the fuck up. I'm in charge now," Connor said.

"Excuse me, Mr. In Charge," Aaron said. "You might be a little scarier with the safety off."

"Huh?" Connor asked, looking down at the shotgun.

With him distracted, Aaron launched himself at the kid. Grabbing the barrel of the shotgun in one hand, he balled his fist and slugged the kid in the jaw with the other. Aaron yanked the shotgun away from him as Connor crashed to the floor, blood running down his jaw from his split lip.

Sherry screamed and tried to run out of the room. Lisa grabbed a fistful of the girl's hair and pulled. The girl's feet went out from under her and Sherry fell to the floor. Curling into a ball, she lay there, sobbing her eyes out. She knew they were about to die.

Aaron swung the shotgun around and, snapping off the safety, yelled, "Enough! All we wanted was a place to crash for a while and to use your goddamn boat. That's it! We're not going to hurt you."

"Yeah. You're _so_ not going to hurt us," Connor grumbled, spitting blood on the floor.

Carlos stood over the boy, his gun in Connor's face. "Hey, man, you're the one that pulled a gun on us. You're lucky we didn't kill your ass."

"Carlos, back off," Aaron said.

Taking a deep breath, Aaron said, "Here's what we're going to do. We're all going to sit down, have a little lunch and be friendly. Nobody gets killed. Sound like a plan?"

At the word killed, Sherry went into another round of sobs. Rolling his eyes, Carlos asked, "Can someone shut her the hell up? She's starting to get on my nerves."

Connor snorted and said, "Man, once she starts there ain't no stopping her."

"Connor, you are such a worthless asshole," the other girl said, speaking for the first time. She knelt down and put her arms around Sherry, holding her until her crying finally stopped.

Aaron flipped the safety on and set the shotgun down on the coffee table. Keeping his voice low and level, he said, "Look, I'm sorry we freaked you out. Lisa's right, we're not going to hurt you. I just had some people I've known for years get killed. We've been stuck in a boat with no keys, surrounded by an army of those stinking dead fucks. It's been a really shitty day. Can we please get something to eat and, maybe, crash here tonight?"

Pat looked at Aaron for a moment, mulling it over. They had the guns; they could just take what they wanted. Maybe it would be better to just give them what they wanted and get them on their way.

"Okay, you can stay," Pat said, hoping like hell he wouldn't regret those words.

"Cool," Aaron said, giving him a smile. "Now, what do you got to eat around here?"


	24. Chapter 24

"That's about the tenth one since I came up here," Pat said.

Aaron watched the zombie through the blinds. It was making its way up the street, head swinging from side to side. Aaron figured it had been nearby when Sherry screamed earlier and was now looking for what had made the noise.

"How long have you been up here?" He asked.

Pat swallowed and said, "About five minutes. I wanted to get my cell and try my dad again. I was gonna head back down but I thought I'd take a peek outside. After the first seven or eight, I came and got you."

As he watched, another zombie came down the street. Like the first, this one was hunting. Aaron watched it, thinking. They had a pretty good setup with the house. The whole front was a three car garage. To actually get to the front door you had to use the intercom and someone inside had to buzz you through the gate. As long as they stayed at the back of the house and keep quiet, they should be able to stay unnoticed.

"I think we're okay for now as long as we keep quiet," Aaron said. "I'm going to head back down and finish eating. Your girlfriend makes a mean omelet."

"Enjoy," Pat said.

He watched Aaron leave his room and, once he was out of earshot, let out a sigh of relief. He had actually been up in his room seeing if he and his friends could get out of his window and down into the garage, just in case Aaron's group turned out to be trouble. Seeing all the zombies out there screwed those plans though.

Heading back downstairs, he heard a commotion coming from the living room. _Great_, he thought, _what did Connor do _this _time_? Walking into the living room, he found everyone gathered around the TV.

The TV showed a reporter standing on top of a building, looking over the edge. She shook her head and stepped back from the egde, tears running down her face.

"_Maggie, we're on. Come on girl, you can do it_," a voice said from off camera.

"_I can't_," the reporter said, shaking her head harder. She crumpled down onto the roof, tears flowing uncontrollably down her face.

An older mad walked over and put his arm around her. She flung herself against him and continued to weep.

They heard a sigh come from off-screen and then a voice said, "_Well, looks like I'll talk and shoot. This is Theo Weston. I'm a cameraman with Channel 12 News. The crying lady is Maggie Reed. Normally Maggie's a pro, but it's been a really shitty couple of days for her._"

Theo giggled and said, "_Gee, I hope the FCC comes down and arrest me for saying 'shitty' on the air. Unless shitty's not good enough for you. Maybe fuck. How about fuck you, motherfuckers, how's that?_"

"_Theo!_" snapped the older man holding Maggie.

Theo's giggling tapered off and, after a moment he continued. "_Sorry, Al. Okay, here we go. We on top of the Channel 12 building in Phoenix. We're getting ready to take off and we wanted to warn you to stay out of Phoenix._"

The camera shook as he walked over to the edge of the building. Panning down, the camera caught zombies in the streets. Hundreds. Thousands. There were too many to make out. The streets were covered in them.

"_Phoenix belongs to the dead. Stay out of Phoenix_," Theo said.

Turning around, the camera caught a couple of people waiting by a helicopter. Al, the producer, helped Maggie over to the helicopter while the other two people loaded supplies.

"_We're hoping to find somewhere safe. We're full on gas but we just need somewhere to go. So, if you're somewhere we can get to, please help us_," Theo pleaded. "_They're in the building and we don't know how much longer we've got. If you can hear me, call 480-555-6084, it's my cell and it still works._"

A loud banging started from off camera and Theo spun to look at a door.

"_Oh no_," he whispered.

"_Theo, get your ass over here!_" One of the men at the helicopter shouted.

The camera spun and the image bounced as Theo ran for the helicopter. He dove inside and yanked the door closed behind him. He kept the camera pressed to the window as the helicopter's engine started.

Theo panned the camera up and watched as the rotors began to spin. Faster and faster they went, until the helicopter started to lift off of the roof. The camera's built in mic picked up the helicopter crew's shouts of triumph as they rose up from the roof.

The picture lurched and Theo cursed as he slammed into the helicopter's door. Pointing them camera out the window, it showed two zombies holding onto the helicopter's skids. Another leapt up and grabbed the skid, yanking the helicopter further off balance.

"_Go! Go! Go!_" Theo screamed.

"_I can't. It's too much weight on that side_," the pilot said.

The camera showed two more zombies grab onto the skids. A loud scream and then the screen went to static.

Pat collapsed onto the sofa next to Sherry. She buried her head in his shoulder and sobbed. The room was silent except for the hissing of static.

"Turn it off," Aaron whispered.

Connor sat, with the remote in his hand, staring at the static.

"Connor," Aaron said, "please, just turn it off."

Connor hit the power button and dropped the remote on the coffee table. "I wanna go home," he whispered.

"You and me both," Aaron said.

"That's what it's like out there?" Shannon, Sherry's friend, asked, while once again trying to console a weeping Sherry. "Everyone dying?"

"Yeah," Aaron said. "Sometimes it's worse. You guys have been pretty lucky."

Pat had told Aaron's group about how he and his friends had ditched school to head down to a three day party down in one of the coves off of Lake Havasu. Towards the end of the party, a small group of zombies attacked and Pat had just managed to get his friends onto the boat and safely away.

The only problem was they didn't have enough gas to make it home. After hiding out in another cove for the night, they headed to Havasu Landing to get gas. They arrived at the boat pumps but, after a quick search, couldn't find anyone to pay for the gas. Pat felt guilty about stealing the gas, but they needed to get home.

The trip home had been an ocean of calm surrounded by chaos. The river was practically deserted, while they could see fires and running people on shore. They heard explosions, screams and gunfire most of the trip back.

By the time they made it to Pat's, everyone was exhausted from lack of sleep and the terror that threatened to overwhelm them. After a quick shower and meal, the four had collapsed and slept into the next morning. Each had tried to get a hold of friends and family with no luck.

Pat was up in his room, trying to call his father, when he saw his first zombie. He sat, staring out the window, frozen by the sight in front of it. It was an old man crawling up the road. He was missing most of his legs below the thigh. His left arm was missing below the elbow and Pat could see the bone sticking out of his skin. He watched the crawling dead man for almost five minutes before going down to get his friends.

The group had watched the dead man crawl until he was, mercifully, out of sight. Afterwards, the four checked the TV to see what was going on. They had listened to a few reports but had been spared any video.

They waited, hoping to hear something about what to do, until Aaron's group arrived. Now, Pat wished they could just go back to not knowing how bad it was out there. Ignorance truly was bliss.

"So what do we do?" Shannon asked, looking at Aaron.

"I don't know," Aaron answered. "I just don't know."


	25. Chapter 25

"What do you mean you don't know? The way these two made it sound," Connor said, waving his hand at Danny and Carlos, "you were the brains of the outfit. Now you don't know what to do? Just fucking great."

Aaron sighed. "It's not like I can snap my fingers and come up with the next great plan for staying alive. There's a lot to look at and plan for. For example, we're not going to be able to stay here forever. We need to find somewhere more secure and more long term."

"What's wrong with here?" Pat asked.

"Nothing right now. But what happens when we run out of food? What happens if we hook up with more people? We need something bigger. Something that'll give us room to expand."

"Yeah, like what?" Connor asked. "With all those dead things out there, you're gonna need a castle or something."

"Well, if you know one we can get to by boat, you can be the hero, how's that?"

"What if it's not a castle?" Carlos asked.

"Huh?" Aaron asked.

"I mean, what if I know somewhere that's got a big ass wall? It's got lots of room and it's right on the river with its own marina and private dock for the casino cruise boats," he answered.

"Don't dick with me, Carlos," Aaron said. "Just spit it out."

"Well, I work construction. We just finished on those Riverview Condos a couple of months ago, up by 5th Street. It's some really pricey shit and it's not in the best neighborhood so they wanted it secure. The walls are like ten feet tall and the two gates are strong enough that when Dave hit one with the truck it didn't move. It was pretty funny; Dave busted his nose on the steering wheel."

Aaron thought about it. He knew the condos Carlos was talking about. He'd read something in the paper about them being too expensive and they were having trouble getting people to buy. There would be plenty of room for everyone and then some. It might not be a castle, it might actually be better.

"I want to check it out, but not today. It's getting dark anyway," he said. "Pat, I'd like you to run me and Carlos up there tomorrow. We can check it out and if it looks good, we might be out of your hair."

"Oh, isn't that nice of you?" Connor asked. "You'll get out of our hair _after_ eating our food and borrowing our boat. Are you planning on leaving us anything at all?"

"We'll compensate you. _After_ we get situated at Riverview or wherever we wind up," Aaron said.

"If we live that long," Connor said, storming out of the room.

"Maybe you should hit him again," Shannon suggested. "I know _I_ enjoyed that."

"Don't tempt me," Aaron said.

* * *

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" Lisa asked, sitting down next to Paul. Most of the rest of the crew had passed out all over the living room. Aaron had them sleeping in shifts to keep an eye on things. 

Paul shrugged and said, "Can't. I'm too scared of what I'm going to dream about."

Lisa patted his arm and said, "I know the feeling."

"Listen," Paul said, "I didn't get a chance to thank you for getting my ass off the boat earlier. I guess I was pretty bad there for a while."

"Yeah, you were. Had us all a little worried. I know Aaron's glad to have you back."

Paul looked away from her and said, "I don't know why. All I seem to be good at is fucking things up."

"Knock that off," she said, grabbing his chin and making him look into her eyes. "Some bad stuff happened at Big 5. You couldn't be awake and everywhere twenty-four hours a day. You're only human."

She let go of his chin and shook her head. "No wonder he and you get along so well. You're exactly alike."

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"You both blame yourselves for everything that goes wrong. Even the stuff you couldn't possibly have done anything about. It's cute but it's stupid and you both need to stop doing it."

Paul thought about it for a moment and said, "So, essentially, you're saying I'm cute."

Lisa rolled her eyes and smiled. "Delusional too. Now get some rest, Romeo."

Paul smiled for the first time in, what felt like, forever. A little flirting to take the mind off of how fucked up the world was. It helped that Lisa was blonde and nice on the eyes. _Very_ nice on the eyes.

* * *

Connor eased the door closed and whispered, "Okay, she went back downstairs." 

The four teens had decided to sleep together in Pat's room. Shannon wasn't happy about it and had made her opinion very clear to everyone. Connor had bitten his tongue to not bite her head off and his patience had, finally, been rewarded.

"We need to be ready to get out of here before they wake up in the morning," he said.

"Oh God, this shit again?" Shannon asked.

"It's not shit," Connor hissed. "What do you think they're going to do to us once we give them everything they want? You think they're really just gonna say goodbye and call it good?"

"Yes, I do," Shannon answered. "What do they gain by killing us, dumbass?"

"Everything! The house, the truck, the cars, the boat and all of our goddamn food, you stupid bitch!" He snapped.

Pat stepped between the two and held his arms up to keep them apart. "Connor, just calm down. You too, Shannon. Why can't you two be civil for two minutes?"

"Cause she's a bitch," Connor answered.

"He's a fucking idiot," she said.

Pat sighed and said, "Let's just hear Connor out, okay? I'm really tired and want to get some sleep this year."

"Thank you, Pat," Connor said, glaring at Shannon. "I think we should get the hell out of here first thing in the morning. Grab some food and water and take you dad's truck and head to my place."

"Why your place?" Sherry asked. "My place is bigger."

"You just want to see if your parents are there," Connor said. "And we can do that too. But my place is on the river and they said those things out there don't like water so we should go to my place."

"That's stupid," Shannon said. "So what if your place is on the river? You don't have a boat."

"One of my neighbors should," he said. "We can just take break into their place and get the keys for it."

Shannon laughed and said, "So you don't trust them _but_ you'll do all of the stuff they've already done _and_ believe them that zombies don't like water? You're just a freaking genius, Connor."

"If you're so smart, what's your plan, bitch?" Connor snapped.

"Duh! I'm staying with them."

"Shannon!" Sherry cried. "You can't! We have to stay together. Please stay with us!"

Shannon walked over and sat down with Sherry. "We're going to stay together, sweetie. All of us are going to stay with Aaron's group. They've been out in this and know what they're doing."

Connor barked a laugh. "You believe their stupid story? For all we know they made the whole thing up."

"This from the guy basing his whole plan around that same stupid story," Shannon bit back.

"Enough," Pat said. "I'm not going to sit here and listen to you two fight all night. Let's get some rest and see what happens in the morning."

Connor stared open-mouthed at his friend. "You're going to do everything they want, aren't you?"

Pat turned to his friend and said, "Connor, I just think we shouldn't rock the boat. They haven't done anything to hurt us and I really don't think they're going to unless we do something stupid…."

"Oh! So now you're saying I'm stupid too," Connor interrupted. "Thanks a lot,_buddy_. Nice to see how good a friend you really are."

Connor stomped toward the door. Pat grabbed his arm to stop him but Connor jerked away.

"Don't fucking touch me!" He yelled. "Just stay the fuck away from me."

He yanked the door open and stormed out of the room. He knew Shannon wasn't going to go along with him. Not after she had been drooling over Aaron all afternoon. He just couldn't believe Pat wasn't going to either. So much for ten years of friendship.

If they weren't going to listen then fuck 'em. He'd save his own ass and to hell with the rest of them.


	26. Chapter 26

Connor crept towards the garage, a bag with some cans of food and bottles of water in one hand and the keys to Pat's dad's truck in the other. Between the clanking of the cans and rattling of the keys, he was surprised nobody had heard him yet.

He stepped into the garage and eased the door closed behind him. So far, so good. He knew his plan was the right one. It was just too bad Pat had flaked out on him. Maybe he'd come check and see if Aaron's little army left anyone alive. Or maybe he'd just leave the losers to their fates.

He got into the truck and tossed his supplies on the passenger seat. He locked the truck, slid the key into the ignition and took a deep breath. This was it. If he was going to do this, he'd have to do it now and do it fast.

Hitting the button on the garage door opener that was clipped to the sun visor, Connor started the truck. The dual turbo diesel engine roared to life as the door inched upwards.

"Come on. Come on," Connor whispered, shifting into reverse. This was taking too long. Maybe he should have waited until the door was open to start the truck.

The door into the house swung open and Carlos and Danny stepped into the garage. Seeing them, Connor panicked and hit the gas.

The truck tires spun for a second before they caught and yanked the truck out of the garage. The top of the cab grazed the still rising garage door but that didn't matter to Connor. All that mattered was he was free and clear.

He tapped the horn and waved before shifting into drive and taking off up the street.

* * *

Carlos and Danny could only stand and watch as Connor tore off in the truck. When the little bastard beeped the horn, Carlos yanked his pistol from his belt and ran out into the driveway

His body trembling with rage, he took two shots at the truck but both missed.

"You little fucking_pendejo_!" He screamed after the truck.

Two gunshots behind him made Carlos turn around and see the mob of zombies rushing up the street at him. He ran back for the garage. Danny kept firing into the mob until he was out of shells.

The two ran back into the garage as Aaron, Lisa and Pat came out of the house. Seeing the mass of zombies coming towards them, Aaron snapped up his shotgun and opened fire. He aimed for the legs of the front runners and was rewarded when they fell and tripped the runners behind them.

"Close the fucking door!" He yelled, firing his last shot.

Pat smacked his hand against the garage door opener. The door started down but zombies were already in the driveway. Carlos and Lisa opened fire with the Glocks and took out a couple more but two made it through their gunfire and into the garage.

Aaron flipped the shotgun around and swung it at the first zombie. The stock smashed into its head and knocked it to the ground. Before it could get back up, Aaron brought the butt of the shotgun down onto its head. He hit it again and again until, finally, it stopped moving.

While Aaron fought the first one, the second launched itself at Lisa. She brought her Glock around but was too late. The monster hit her and sent her gun skidding across the garage. She grabbed it by the throat, fighting to keep its snapping jaws away. Danny grabbed the zombie's shirt and tried to pull it off of Lisa but the shirt tore and he fell away from the pair.

The zombie pressed down on her, hands ripping at her arms, trying to force them out of the way. Lisa felt her grip slip as a boot slammed into the zombie's side, knocking it off of her.

Screaming in rage, Paul launched himself onto the zombie. He grabbed it by the hair and slammed its head against the concrete floor. He kept slamming the thing's head into the ground until it was dead.

The garage door was nearly down when a zombie lunged under it. It was most of the way through when the garage door hit its leg. The door's sensor, finding something in the way, stopped the door from closing all the way.

The zombie clawed at the ground, pulling itself into the garage. Aaron ran over and brought the shotgun down on its head. The stock of the shotgun snapped off under the impact. The zombie was staggered but far from dead as it growled and tried to get up.

Aaron stomped his boot down on its head. After a second stomp, the zombie's skull gave a sickening crunch and it lay still.

Lisa lay with her knees pressed against her chest, sobbing. It had almost bit her. Another second or two and she would have been dead. She felt hands touch her shoulders. She cried out and tried to crawl away from those hands.

"Lisa, it's okay. You're safe."

She stopped struggling and turned to find Paul kneeling over her. She threw herself into his arms and sobbed against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. Last night her smile and laugh had lifted him up but now, having her in his arms, made all of the fighting and dying go away. For a moment, everything was perfect.

Aaron stood looking at the garage door. It was still open a couple of inches, just enough for the zombies to stretch their arms under. The ones not on the ground trying to reach under were hitting the door, rattling it in its track.

He walked over to Paul and Lisa. "Is she okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," Paul said, "but it was a close one. Just give us a minute."

Aaron reached down and gave Lisa's arm a squeeze. She looked up and gave him a faint smile. It wasn't much but he'd take what he could get.

Pat stood staring at the zombie Paul had killed. It had been about to bite Lisa and all Pat could do was stand and stare. If it hadn't been for Paul, Lisa would be one of them now.

"Pat, come back," Aaron said, snapping his fingers in front of Pat's face.

Pat blinked a couple of times and tried to meet Aaron's eyes but couldn't. He stood, staring at his feet. Aaron grabbed Pat's chin and forced him to make eye contact.

"I'm guessing you froze up and now you feel like shit. Well, get over it," Aaron said. "It's happened to all of us and the quicker that gets into your head, the better."

"But what if he hadn't come into the garage when he did," Pat asked, nodding to Paul. "It would have bitten her."

"But it didn't. Look, I need you to answer some questions. Can you do that?"

Pat nodded his head.

"Is that door going to suddenly decide to go up?"

"No, when it hits something it just stops and stays stopped until you hit the button again," Pat answered. "Dad used to hit the tailgate of the truck with it all the time."

"Can they force it up if enough of them try?"

"No. Me and Connor tried that once with one of my dad's two ton jacks. We couldn't get it to budge."

"Good," Aaron said. At least the ones on the ground were less of a factor than the ones standing and beating on the door. Already he could see several dents in the door from the beating it was taking. He figured they had a while before the door gave under the onslaught.

One of the windows in the garage door shattered. A zombie's snarling face pressed into the hole as it tried to climb into the garage.

"People, let's get our shit and get rolling. That door ain't gonna last forever," Aaron said, heading back into the house to pack. Another safe haven found and lost. He prayed Carlos's condo idea panned out because he wasn't sure how much more of this shit he could take.


End file.
